Minds Within a Mind
by BigFics2
Summary: Tragedy hits Hinata Sou as Shinobu is rushed to the hospital and she falls into a very deep coma. As her mind races though memories past and of possibilities of the future, the others can only wait and wonder if she will ever wake up. RELOADED!
1. Tragady Befalls

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Love Hina, Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains scenes of bloody violence. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 1: Tragedy Befalls**

It's a warm July summer day in Hinata town. There is a constant breeze blowing keeping the temperature from rising to high. The air still feels a bit "sticky" because of all the hot springs around the area, but it isn't too bad. It's shortly after lunch time at Hinata Sou. Naru, wanting to take a break from studying for some of her classes at Toudai, decides shopping is the perfect way to relax, but she doesn't want to go alone. Since Kitsune has a hair appointment at the salon down the street in about 30 mins she decides to take another good friend.

"Hey! Shinobu!" calls Naru into the kitchen. Shinobu is standing by the sink drying off some dishes she has just gotten through washing after lunch. She turns to the doorway.

"Oh hey Naru." she answers after being slightly startled. "Do you need me for something?" she asks. "Not really, but that was a great lunch you fixed." Naru says with much gratitude. Shinobu blushes a little. "Thank you." Shinobu says a little embarrassed.

"Well I was thinking that since you do so much for us, you know with all the cooking and cleaning, I though I could take you shopping; My treat." she adds. "That's very nice of you but I still have some more work to do." Shinobu answers with hesitancy.

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! I know this great little shop near Toudai that sells a lot of great cloths. I'll buy you a nice outfit!" she says while grabbing Shinobu's arm. "But-" Shinobu says while taking a step back. "Don't worry I'll get Keitaro to do your chores until we get back. Now come on!" she commands playfully as she yanks Shinobu out of the kitchen. "Ahh!" yelps Shinobu as she is suddenly jerked by her arm. "Ok! Ok! I'll come." Shinobu finally agrees.

Moments later Shinobu and Naru are heading out the door. Naru turns around to look at Motoko watching the T.V. "Hey Motoko. Shinobu and I are heading out for a while, watch over the place while where out, and make sure Kietaro does those chores I told him about ok." she reminds. "Don't you worry about that. You 2 have fun alright." says Motoko in her almost emotionless voice but still with a slight smile. "We will!" says Shinobu as she turns and waves good-bye. She and Naru start walking down the steps to the bus stop just down below.

As they walk up to the bus stop Shinobu turns her head to Naru. "Hey Naru, um, why did you want to take me shopping all of a sudden?" she asks curiously. "Well since Kitsune had a hair appointment today she couldn't come, so you were the next logical choice. Besides I haven't seen you get any new outfits since Christmas when your mom got you that yellow dress. So I though I would treat you to some new cloths for all the hard work you have done for us." Naru says with a big smile as she faces Shinobu. Shinobu blushes a little. "Thank you." she says. "No problem." Naru answers back.

The bus finally arrives about 5 mins later and Naru and Shinobu both board it. After about an hour they reach the bus stop beside Tokyo U. As Shinobu and Naru exit the bus Naru announces that they have arrived.

"So where is this store?" asks Shinobu. "It's just down the street." answers Naru as the points in the direction they need to go.

They walk down the street for about 5 to 8 mins before Naru stops. "We're here!" she announces. Shinobu looks up at the store's sign trying to see if the store is a local retailer. She's puzzled by the name for a second. (Although it is written in Japanese Characters)

"John…Johns…-" she says trying her best to read and say it at the same time. "Johnson's Clothing Outlet." says Naru helping Shinobu pronounce the name. "Johnson? Isn't that an American name?" Shinobu asks a bit confused. "Yeah. The couple that owns this store are from America. They sell American brand cloths, shoes, and jewelry like Nike and Polo. It's a bit expensive but they sell a great selection of cloths. Lately I have been buying almost all my new cloths from here." she adds. "Neat! I always wanted to have some cloths made from an American brand." says Shinobu finally getting a bit excited about the shopping trip.

Naru and Shinobu walk through the door and the door hits a little bell above it announcing their arrival. "Oh hello Naru!" says a tall man behind the glass display counter. He looks to be in his 40's with a little grey hair on the sides of his head. Very broad in the shoulders he looks as if he could lift 3 Narus with on arm alone. "Hello Mr. Johnson." answers Naru with a smile.

"Back for another designer shirt?" says a dark blonde haired woman on a roller latter behind Mr. Johnson. She looks to be about the same age but she is a clear foot shorter than Mr. Johnson "Nah. Not this time Mrs. Johnson. This time a brought a friend." answers Naru as she points to Shinobu.

"And who might this be?" asks Mr. Johnson as he turns to Shinobu. "Oh hello my name is Shinobu Maehara. I'm please to meet you sir." says Shinobu bowing with nervousness in her voice. "Relax. You can just call me Mr. Johnson. We're pleased to meet you too." says Mr. Johnson.

"Welcome Miss Shinobu to our little store we hope you'll find something to your liking." says Mrs. Johnson. "Thank you. I'm sure I will." answers Shinobu.

Shinobu turns her eyes and notices Mr. Johnson staring at her. She blushes a bit before turning to him. "Um…is there something wrong?" she asks nervously. "Oh I'm sorry. It's just that you look bit like our daughter. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable." he adds. "You know she does look like Susie." says Mrs. Johnson after taking a second look at Shinobu. Shinobu blushes a bit more.

"Tell you what Shinobu." speaks up Mr. Johnson startling Shinobu a bit. "Since you're a friend of Naru, one of out best customers, and since you look a bit like our daughter I'll let you have 25 percent off your 1st purchase of anything in the store." he finishes. "Really?" asks Shinobu with a stunned smile. Mr. Johnson nods his head with a smile of his own. "Thank you!" Shinobu says with excitement in her voice. Shinobu walks off to the designer dresses near the front window of the store.

"Honey. Do you think it's wise to do that, we still own money to THEM." says Mrs. Johnson in a whispering concerned voice after getting off the ladder to reach into a cardboard box full of shirts. "Don't worry. I know we still owe money to THEM but if we don't give our customers a deal every once in a while some of them might not want to come back ever again." says Mr. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson nods her head as if to say she understands.

"So you owe some money to someone?" asks Naru curiously. "Oh um…uh….yeah some money." says Mr. Johnson hesitantly. "See when we 1st opened the store, business wasn't going to well. Bills started to pile up, and the city and tax collectors were starting to breath down our necks. So we…uh… took out a loan to help pay off the bills and pay some of the taxes. Good thing we did because shortly afterward 'word of mouth' about our store started to spread quickly and business started to pick up and the money started flowing better. That's about the time when you 1st started coming to our store. We're about a week behind the due date to pay THEM back but we just about have enough money to pay THEM back with in the next couple of days. I'm sure THEY won't be mad at us since we're going to pay THEM a little bit of interest since the payment is going to be a little late" explains Mr. Johnson.

"And who are 'They?'" asks Naru curiously. Mr. Johnson obviously looks uncomfortable about talking about this and tries to change the subject.

"It's amazing how much your friend looks like our daughter." he says. "Oh really? How so?" Naru asks. Mr. Johnson breaths a sigh of relief in his mind then reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his wallet. He opens it up and pulls out a picture.

"This is Susie." he says as he hands the picture over to Naru. Naru takes the picture and looks at it for a moment. "Hey! Your right! She does look a bit like Shinobu!" says Naru with a bit of surprise.

Mrs. Johnson seeing that Mr. Johnson changed the subject climbs back up the roller ladder and starts placing folded shirts into some display holes behind the counter.

"You know she came to visit us last week." says Mr. Johnson. "Oh man. It's a shame I missed her." says Naru with a bit of disappointment in her voice. "Yea I'm sure you 2 would have gotten along really well because she always loved to make new friends with our customers." adds Mr. Johnson.

Shinobu glances back at Naru and Mr. Johnson having a nice conversation and then turns back around to look at some more dresses. She walks up to one of the store's 2 display windows and looks at the 2 manikins wearing the latest dress designs. One is wearing a pink dress with a beautiful flower pattern on it. The other one is wearing a bluish green dress with white frilly edgings on the sleeves and the bottom of the dress.

She looks at them for a moment and then starts to look at the folded dresses lying on the small display shelf in the window. As she looks at them something out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. She looks out and sees a white Honda flying down the street at a blazing speed. She can tell its speeding because every time it would hit a bump it would go several inches off the road before landing again.

"Man that idiot is going to kill someone!" Shinobu thinks to herself.

She keeps watching it expecting it to go flying by the store any second now when she is surprised to see it slam on its breaks causing a huge smoke cloud to erupt from behind it. She watches as it comes to a complete stop in front of the store. As the smoke cloud catches up and envelopes the car she can barley make out the driver's side window and the window behind the driver start to be rolled down.

As the windows come down she sees 2 black things being pointed at the store. She immediately recognizes the shape of the 2 things.

"GUN!" she cries out startling Naru and Mr. Johnson out of their conversation and some of the other customers.

Suddenly a hail of gunfire and bullets comes blasting and smashing through the windows and the door into the store. Naru is confused for a second until she fells a hard shove on her back which causes her to fall to the ground.

A split second after she hits the ground she hears, "Argh!" and then hears something land beside her with a thud. She looks over and sees Mr. Johnson dead on the ground with a bullet to the head and one through the throat. Next she hears a scream and then something crashing into the glass display case above her. She feels some glass hit her back but nothing cuts her.

For several seconds the gunfire continues to rain into the store, shredding up cloths, knocking over manikins and displays, and shattering mirrors and anything glass. The screams of other customers are nearly drowned out by the gunfire from outside.

Then as quickly as it stared the gunfire stops and Naru hears the sound of tires spin as the car takes off.

After a second or 2 Naru slowly lifts her head up. She looks over at Mr. Johnson covered and in a pool of blood. She tries to stand up but bumps into something above her. She turns around to see what she bumped and falls back on her butt in horror as she sees Mrs. Johnson covered in blood with glass sticking out of her chest and stomach. She looks over to see a bullet wound in her shoulder. Apparently she was shot and was knocked off the roller ladder and fell into the glass display case causing her to be impaled by several large glass shards strait through her back and out her chest, and stomach.

Naru looks to the back of the store and sees other customers getting off the ground and coming out from behind various hiding places. Naru suddenly remembers Shinobu.

"Shinobu! Shinobu! Are you ok?" cries Naru as she starts heading to the front of the store. "Shino-" she is cut off when she sees Shinobu slowly walk out from behind a rack of shredded cloths.

"Shinobu! Oh thank God your-" she stops when she sees the look in Shinobu's face that she has never seen before.

She looks at Shinobu holding her stomach. Naru shakes her head a bit fearing what she is thinking. She looks back at Shinobu's face and then back at her hands and starts to see blood ooze out from between Shinobu's fingers.

"Shinobu?" Naru says with fear in her voice. "……Naru" says Shinobu weakly.

Suddenly the strength in Shinobu's legs gives out and she falls to her knees and starts to fall forward. "Shinobu!" cries out Naru as she rushes to her.

Naru catches Shinobu in her arms and holds her. Shinobu looks directly into Naru's eyes with a face of sheer terror and pain mixed in. Naru looks at her for a moment. "Come on Shinobu! You have to hang on girl!" Naru calls out. Naru then lifts up Shinobu's hands to look at the bullet wound. She looks at it as it starts to poor out blood profusely. "Oh God." she whispers to herself. She turns to the other people in the back of the store and then to the growing crowd gathering out side the store.

"Somebody call for help hurry!" she cries to them. A man waves at her getting her attention and then points to his cell phone that he has up to this ear as if to say he's already on it. "Call an Ambulance! Hurry!" she calls out to him anyway. The man nods and starts talking into the phone to someone.

As Naru looks at him Shinobu reaches up and grabs a hold of Naru's shirt sleeve getting her attention.

Shinobu takes a couple of hard fought breaths. "Naru…….Please tell…..Please tell Sempai that I love him." she says with a whimpering whisper voice. Naru jerks back a bit out of shock from hearing this as tears start to form in her eyes. "No! You can tell him that yourself!" she shouts at Shinobu as a couple of tears fly out of her eyes. As she says that the sounds of a couple of blaring sirens off in the distance tells them that help is coming.

Shinobu's face starts to turn very pale as she gives a small smile at Naru. Her grip weakens and her hand falls off of Naru's sleeve leaving behind a blood stained hand print on Naru's sleeve. She then gasps for air a couple of times before her eyes start to shut.

"Shinobu! Come on stay with me!" Naru says in a crackling voice.

Shinobu's eyes shut all the way as Shinobu uses the last of her strength to try to hold the air in her lungs for as long as possible but to no avail. The breath escapes her lungs and her body falls limp in Naru's arms.

"No…..No…..This can't be happening…..No…." Naru says starting to shake her head. "**SHINOBUUUUU!**" she whales as the plunges her face into Shinobu's chest and begins to cry bitterly.

End of Chapter 1

To be continued in Chapter 2- "Waiting: part 1"

Author Note: Ok let's get one thing strait. gabs you by the collar and brings you in close to his face. Shinobu's not dead! She's the main character of this story so it wouldn't make since to kill her now would it? I just wanted to say that, so if any Shinobu fans are reading this, not to get upset.


	2. Waiting Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina; Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains descriptive trauma, a few "choice" words and brief nudity. Reader Discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITH A MIND**

**Chapter 2- Waiting: Part 1**

"**SHINOBUUUUU!"** whales Naru as she plunges her face into Shinobu's chest starting to cry bitterly. "Wake up! Oh God please wake up!" she cries out some more.

The sound of some screeching tires and a siren indicate that the ambulance has arrived. Moments later a Police officer and 4 paramedics bash through the busted door and into the store.

The police officer comes over and grabs Naru by her arms and gently lifts her off Shinobu. "Come on ma'am please let the paramedics work on her now." commands the officer in a calm tone of voice. Naru stands up and allows herself to be pulled back a few feet away from Shinobu by the police officer.

The 4 Paramedics go to work on Shinobu. The one that looks the youngest of the group, probably a rookie, lifts Shinobu's shirt up to expose the wound. He jerks back in shock a bit. Having probably never seen a gunshot victim before he's a little confused at what he sees. "My God! What happened to this poor girl?" he says aloud probably not knowing that he did.

After hearing that Naru starts to cry again and she puts her face into the police officers sleeve.

A man and a woman come into the store out of the crowd. The man says he's a doctor and the woman says she's a nurse and they ask if they can help with anything. One of the older looking paramedics points to the back of the store to a man who has a bloody shirt wrapped around his left hand. The doctor, nurse and the young paramedic rush over to him to see what they can do.

Naru, still crying in the police officer's sleeve, is shocked to hear one of the paramedics shout out suddenly. "I have a pulse! But it's really weak!" They immediately gently lift Shinobu up and place her on a backboard and rush her out to the waiting ambulance. The head paramedic allows Naru to come along since she would be the only one who could get up with her closest family and friends.

The police officer helps Naru into the ambulance and then closes the doors behind her and pats the doors indicating to the driver to go. The ambulance does a 180 and then speeds off in the direction of Toudai.

As the ambulance heads to the closest hospital one of the paramedics takes a pair of scissors and cuts off Shinobu's shirt to get easier access to the wound and then places a couple of pads with wires onto her chest while the other paramedic starts putting guise and bandages over the wound trying to get it to stop bleeding. Almost immediately the heart monitor built into the wall of the ambulance comes to life and starts to beep. The beeps are few and far between but at least there is a heart beat. That is until it flat lines!

"Shit! V-fib!" shouts one of the paramedics. "Oh God." Naru says quietly. The paramedic takes the pair of scissors and begins to cut off Shinobu's bra.

"Why are you cutting off her bra?" Naru asks in protest. "Because we have to shock her heart now to try to get it to restart. We have to remove all metal touching her skin, including her bra." (IE the wire in her bra) answers the older paramedic as he gets through cutting off Shinobu's bra. He removes it, and reaches for 2 paddles.

He quickly puts some gel of some kind on the paddles then rubs them together and waits for them to charge. Once they do he places them on Shinobu's chest.

"Clear!" he shouts. The other paramedic backs away quickly. The older paramedic pushes a button on the paddles and a shock courses through Shinobu's body causing her to jump. Naru jumps in surprise at the same time and begins to cry again.

The monitor stays flat. "Argh." the older paramedic growls in frustration. "Start compressions!" he commands to the other paramedic. The 2nd paramedic places his hands on Shinobu's chest and begins to do evenly time spaced compressions onto her chest.

As the paddles fully charge again the older paramedic shouts again. "Clear!" he shouts as he places the paddles once again onto Shinobu's chest. The other paramedic backs off quickly. He pushes the button once again and another electrical shock goes coursing through Shinobu's body causing her to jump once again. The monitor stays flat as the other paramedic begins compressions once again. Naru, unable to bare watching this, looks away crying some more.

This goes on for a minute to a minute and a half when the ambulance finally pulls into the emergency trauma entrance of the closest hospital. Naru gets out quickly and reads the name of the hospital on its doors. "Tokyo University Emergency Trauma Center. Wow this is the best hospital in all of Japan." she says to herself quickly.

A shocking noise behind her gets her attention. She turns around quickly to see the paramedics just get through shocking Shinobu again. The monitor finally starts to beep again. "Got her back!" shouts the older paramedic. Naru breaths a small sigh of relief.

Naru follows the paramedics as they quickly wheel Shinobu into the hospital. She follows them all the way to the front desk but is stopped by one of the paramedics.

"I'm sorry ma'am but you're going to have to stay here now." he says. "But-" Naru begins. "Sorry ma'am hospital policy, we need you to try to get up with her family and friends." he commands as he runs back to the cart and resumes wheeling Shinobu down the hall to the closest open emergency room.

Naru stands there and watches them wheel Shinobu down the hall and into a room 6 doors down to the right. She watches as about 4 doctors (At least she thinks they're doctors) and several nurses with medical supplies rush into the same room.

She stands there staring down the hall for a moment when a nurse approaches her. "Ma'am?" she says as she places a hand on her shoulder snapping Naru out of her stare. Naru turns her head to face the nurse who is a few inches shorter than her. "I heard what he said. There are some payphones over on that wall if you need to make some calls." says the nurse as she points to the wall over to Naru's right.

Naru looks over the wall to her right and sees the payphones. "Thank you ma'am." she says looking back at the nurse. Naru takes another quick look down the hall way before she starts walking to the pay phones. She only takes a few steps when she realizes she doesn't have her purse with her.

"Oh no! My purse! With all the rush to get Shinobu here I must have accidentally left it at the store." Naru says to herself.

The nurse looks over and sees Narus plight. She reaches behind the desk and grabs something and walks over to Naru. "Here Miss. Use this." she says as she hands something to Naru. Naru looks at it for a second and realizes it's a phone card.

Oh thank you so much!" says Naru as she bows. "No problem, the phone companies let us have some for free incase of emergencies like this." says the nurse. The nurse goes back and sits behind the main desk while Naru walks over to the closest payphone and places the card into the slot.

"I had better call her parents 1st since they live the furthest away from the hospital." Naru says to herself. She presides to call Shinobu's father 1st since he lives all the way on the other side of Tokyo and would take him more than 2 hours to get to the hospital.

Meanwhile, back at Hinata Sou, Kitsune is just getting back from her hair appointment. "Hey guys im back!" she calls out. She looks over to see the others including Haruka sitting watching the T.V. intently. "Oh Hey Kitsune." says Kietaro. "Man you have to come and see this." he adds as he waves his arm at her to come over.

Kitsune walks over and leans against the back of the couch and looks at the T.V. She sees the main female reporter for the T.V. Tokyo news standing front of a destroyed shop. "Oh. A breaking news report?" she says curiously. "Gee what happened?" she adds to her question.

"They say there was a drive by there at that store." answers Sara. "A drive by? Wow those are rare even for a big city like Tokyo here in Japan." she says amazed. "Shhh! Im trying to listen." says Kietaro. "Oh sorry." says Kitsune in a whispering voice.

Suddenly the phone in the hallway rings getting everyone's attention. "Don't worry I got it!" says Kitsune with a smile. "Just tell me what I miss ok." she adds. She walks through the doorway into the hallway and picks up the phone. "Hello?" she answers.

"Again less than 20 minutes ago reports from witnesses say that a white car raced up to this store and 2 to 3 gunmen stuck out guns out of the car windows and shot up this store behind me for a good 30 seconds before driving off. At last report, 2 people are confirmed dead and they happen to be the owners of the store, while 2 other people were rushed to the Tokyo University Trauma Center less than 2 miles away. One in seriously critical condition and the other with only a gunshot to the hand. He is expected to make it. The police have not given out any names about the other 2 people yet but as soon as we get more information we will bring it to you." says the female reporter.

"Tss. Using a gun to kill someone is a very dishonorable act indeed." says Motoko in a ticked off voice.

"WHAT!" they all hear Kitsune shout from the hallway. They all rush into the hallway wanting to know why Kitsune just yelled. There is a short pause. "Where?" Kitsune says loudly into the phone. Another short pause as Kitsune listens intently into the phone. "When?" she says. Again she listens into the phone. They see a small tear form in Kitsune's eye which startles them. "Ok. We'll be there as soon as we can." says Kitsune in a very saddened voice almost about to cry it sounds like.

She slowly lowers the phone down and hangs it up. She then leans against the table that the phone is on looking very distrait about what she has just heard.

"What is it Kitsune?" asks Kietaro. After a moment Kitsune turns to face the group. "Guys….." she hesitates. "It's Shinobu." she says with a tear rolling down her face. There's another short pause. "What do you mean it's Shinobu?" asks Su confusingly. Kitsune can only look at the floor with a very sadden look.

Motoko suddenly gasps and gets a pale look on her face. She looks over at the T.V. seeing a live picture of the front of the store. "Oh God." she says as she turns her head back to face Kitsune. "Don't tell me."

Back at the hospital, Naru has gone over to sit in a chair in the waiting room. She lowers her head feeling very confused and shaken up at what all has just transpired. As she looks down it's the 1st time she notices her black panty hoes and the bottom of her red dress are heavily stained with blood.

"That's Shinobu's blood." she thinks to herself. "Just less than 20 minutes ago that same blood was coursing through her veins keeping her alive. And now it is all over me!" she says to herself some more. She begins to zone out, not moving a muscle, just staring at the blood stains. She finally goes into shock.

50 minutes to an hour goes by before the rest of the group arrives (minus the parents). They all rush inside all out of breath from running all the way from the Bus stop. Except Haruka who walks in a few minutes later because she ran out of breath half-way there. (Hey she's a heavy smoker what do you expect!)

Kietaro looks to his right and sees Naru sitting in a chair staring blankly into the floor. They all walk over to her.

"Naru. We're here!" says Kietaro calmly. No response. "Naru?" he says again. Still no response. "Hey Naru!" he speaks a bit louder snapping Naru out of her stare.

She looks up at them slowly. Then all the sadness and fear rush back and is to overwhelming for her to take. She dives her face into Kitsune's chest and begins to cry loudly catching her off guard a bit. Kitsune slowly wraps her arms around Naru a tries to comfort her the best she can.

The others, knowing that Naru needs to let this out, precedes to sit a seat of their own. Naru cries for several minutes before she start yelling.

"I was so stupid! She didn't even want to come but I pushed her to come with me! Im so stupid!" she shouts. "Naru you're not stupid." says Kitsune trying to calm her down. "IT'S ALL MY FAULT! It's all my fault that Shinobu got shot. It's all my fault!" she shouts some more.

"Naru LISTEN!" shouts Kitsune as she grabs Naru's face. "You had no idea this would happen so it's not your fault! The only people at fault are the people who shot Shinobu!" she says right into Naru's face.

Naru looks at Kitsune for a second with a bit of shock in her face from hearing Kitsune shout like that but then the look turns into understanding and she goes back to crying, but not as loudly as she had been.

"Come on let's have a seat shall we?" says Kitsune pointing to the seats behind them.

Naru and Kitsune sit in 2 seats right beside each other. Naru lays her head on Kitsune arm still letting some tears fall. Kitsune has her arm around Naru rubbing her head a bit. After a few minutes Naru calms down some but still cries a bit.

About another hour passes very slowly when both of Shinobu's parents finally rush into the hospital. They both go to the front desk and get the nurse's attention. "We're here about our daughter, Shinobu Maehara, we were told that she had been shot." says Mr. Maehara in an urgent tone of voice.

"Ok just wait over there and I'll call one of the doctors to come tell you about her." says the nurse as the points to the waiting room. "Thank you." says Mr. Maehara.

He looks over and sees the others from Hinata Sou already sitting in the waiting room. Both of them walk over with out saying a word to anyone them and take their seats.

Mr. Maehara gives Kietaro and bit of an angered glare which catches him a bit off guard. He can't blame him because Mr. Maehara trusted him to take care of his daughter and keep her safe.

The waiting room is strangely eerily quite except for the ticking of the clock on the wall, and the occasional swinging of the Staff door as nurses and doctors walk through it. Even hyperactive Su is calm and collected although with a very sad look on her face. Naru has fallen asleep on Kitsune's arm out of exhaustion. Nobody has spoken a word since Kitsune snapped at Naru.

After a few minutes a doctor finally comes into the waiting room through the "Staff Only" door. "Mr. and Mrs. Maehara?" he says looking at everyone in the group.

Both of them stand up along with the rest of the group except Kitsune and Naru.

"Hello. I'm Dr. Haramara and I am one of the doctors that worked on your daughter in the Emergency Room." he says calmly.

End of Chapter 2

To be continued in Chapter 3- Waiting: Part 2

Author Note: I got flamed a couple times in my 1st chapter because of some grammar mistakes I made. Just to let you all know I am a horrible speller and have always been one all my life. After each chapter, I reread it at least 7 to 8 times correcting any and all mistakes I find. So if you find any please forgive them ok. Also I know many of you find this kind of style writing a Fanfic new. Please do not be afraid of it. I write all my stories in Paragraph form instead of Script form like so many other writers do. I do this because it helps me stay on track with the story line. After reading my stories a few times I know you all will get the hang of it and enjoy this way.

Story Hint: Guns, although legal, are very hard to get in Japan because of so many restrictions. Because if this, the number of people who are killed or shot by a gun is very low. It's not uncommon for a paramedic in Japan to be totally dumbfounded at seeing a gunshot victim, even some of the more experienced paramedics and doctors are sometime caught off guard when they have to work on a gunshot victim. Just wanted to let you know that incase you were wondering why the paramedic was surprised to see Shinobu shot.


	3. Waiting Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina, Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains descriptive bloody trauma and a few "choice" words. Reader desecration is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 3- Waiting: Part 2**

"Hello. My name is Dr. Haramara and I was one of the doctors that worked on your daughter in the Emergency Room." says a stocky doctor about in his 30's, wearing thin glasses. If it wasn't for his blonde hair he would almost look exactly like Keitaro.

"Doc. How's our daughter?" asks Mr. Maehara.

"Not good I'm afraid." he answers. Everyone in the room takes a slight step backwards.

"Is…Is she going to die?" asks Mr. Maehara with some fear in his voice. "Honestly I have no idea." answers the doctor. "It's a miracle she was alive when the paramedics brought her here. However; Man I hate having to say this; but you all should prepare yourselves for the worst." he gets through saying.

With that Mrs. Maehara turns and begins to cry into Mr. Maehara's chest. "So….her injuries are that severe?" asks Mr. Maehara chocking back some tears. "I'm afraid so." answers the doctor. "I'm very sorry." he adds as he bows.

Silence once again comes over the waiting room except for Mrs. Maehara who is muffling her cries with a tissue in her hand in Mr. Maehara's chest. Mr. Maehara is holding on tightly to her rubbing the back of her head. His usual hardened demeanor is on the verge of breaking down as a few tears roll down his face. The rest of the group are standing silently with extremely saddened looks.

Keitaro, unable to stand the silence anymore, speaks up. "So where is she now?" he asks. The doctor looks up. "Right now she is in the OR undergoing emergency surgery. We wheeled her up there about an hour and 15 mins ago." he answers.

The room goes silent once again. Motoko, gathering some of her composer back, speaks up. "Can you tell us the extent of her injuries?" she asks.

"Of course." he says calmly. He looks over at Mr. Maehara and he nods his head. "1st of all her injuries were much more severe than we 1st thought because of 1 reason. It wasn't until we got her into the ER that we found out she was not shot once but twice." Everyone gasps in horror. "The 2 wounds were bleeding so heavily that it looked like only 1 bullet wound. The 1st bullet struck her about 2 inches up and 1 inch over to her left above her belly button going at a leftward trajectory. It nicked her bottom left rib and started to tumble. It then went through her liver and out her back." he says as he demonstrates on himself using hand motions.

"So it was a through and through?" asks Kitsune. "Yes." answers the doctor. He continues.

"We nearly lost her a couple of times in the ER when her heart actually stopped 3 times, but we managed to bring her back every time, thank God. The 1st bullet did massive damage to her liver, blowing apart 1/4 of it. The reason is because the bullet hit her liver going sideways. After nicking the bottom left rib the bullet started to tumble and so it hit her liver going sideways. Instead of the bullet acting like a spear going through a watermelon it acted more like a bat smashing a watermelon. It was so bad that we had to remove more of the liver until 1/3 of it was removed in order to get to and clamp off all the places that were bleeding. Miraculously the bullet missed the major artery that supplies the liver with blood, but it did sever some major veins, but we managed to clamp them off." the doctor gets through explaining about the 1st bullet.

"And the 2nd bullet?" asks Motoko after a moment.

"The second bullet hit her strait on about an inch to her right from where the 1st bullet hit her." the doctor continued. "It grazed the top part of her large intestine went all the way to her back and ricocheted downward and to the right off of 1 of her vertebra and lodged into her right kidney. We were unable to remove the bullet from her kidney since we were mostly concentrating on her liver, but we did manage to clamp off a blood vessel about to burst because of the bullet." he gets through explaining.

"There is a bit of good news though." he started up again. "The side of the vertebra that was hit was shattered but did its job of protecting the spin from injury by taking the full force of the bullet hit. She is not paralyzed." the doctor gets through explaining.

"Well that's a bit of good news at least." says Keitaro giving a very slight sigh. "So what's her condition?" he asks.

"I don't know. It's been more than an hour since she was sent to the OR. She lost so much blood at the seine that we were forced to give her a lot of adrenalin when she got here to force her body to direct all her blood to her heart, lungs and brain. It was helpful in slowing the bleeding in her liver and kidney, but is very dangerous for the other vital organs. Using adrenalin is mainly used as a last resort to save someone. It helped slow the bleeding long enough for us to get her to the OR so I think we lucked out there. With a person of her age and size she could easily have bled out. She was very lucky that the hospital was close by." he gets through explaining.

The doctor lets a moment go by in order to let all he said sink in.

A minute later his beeper goes off breaking everyone's concentration. He takes it off his belt and looks at the message. "I'm sorry but I have to go now. I will tell 1 of the nurses to take you all to the surgical waiting room." he says as he starts walking away.

"Thank you doctor." says Mr. Maehara before the doctor starts walking away.

They watch as the doctor makes his way to the main desk and instruct the nurse to take them upstairs. The nurse turns around and tells 1 of her assistances to take over for a while as she takes the group up to the surgical waiting room.

She walks over to the group and bows. "Please follow me." she says in a sweet voice. The group nods their heads a starts following the nurse.

Kitsune shakes her shoulder a bit to wake up Naru and tells her it's time to go upstairs.

The group follows the nurse as she goes behind the main desk and around the corner and down the ER hallway with Naru and Kitsune bringing up the rear a few feet behind the group.

As they pass the 6th ER room Naru takes a quick look inside. It's nearly spotless compared to what must have happened in there less than an hour and a half ago. All she sees is the janitor mopping up a small puddle of blood.

Unable to bear the sight of the blood being mopped up Naru quickly turns away with a look of heart ache on her face. Kitsune puts an arm around Naru's shoulder encouraging her to continue walking. After a brief moment Naru hesitantly starts walking again.

The nurse leads the group past 2 more doors before turning left down a hallway. There they enter the elevator hallway. The nurse pushes a button and a minute later 1 of the doors opens and they all get in.

As the doors close the nurse pushes the button for the 8th floor. It only takes a minute for the elevator to reach the 8th floor. She leads them down a long hallway then takes another left down another long hallway until they reach a glass door with a fairly large room behind it.

"This is the surgical waiting room." says the nurse as she points to the door. "One of the surgeons will come to tell you when the surgery is finished." she gets through explaining. "Thank you." says Mr. Maehara.

As the nurse walks away Keitaro opens the door and they all enter it taking their seats. Everyone notices a T.V. hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the room playing at a good volume. It's isn't very loud but it's loud enough for everyone to hear clearly. They notice that it's playing another live report about the shooting.

"The police have now told us just a few minutes ago that this is the style of shooting by the Yakuza if someone is late paying them back money or other commodity. Because of this the police are refusing to give the names of the other people injured in this act of violence to protect their identity." says the female reporter.

Keitaro looks over at Mrs. Maehara who is very upset at what she is seeing on the T.V. So he goes over, reaches up, and turns it off.

"Hey I was watching that!" says a tall man getting up from his chair looking a bit mad at Keitaro.

"I'm sorry sir. But 1 of our friends; her parents (he says as he points to the Maeharas) was shot at that store and is now undergoing emergency surgery. There is a strong possibility that she could die, so seeing that report was very upsetting to us." says Keitaro as he gets through explaining the situation.

The expression on the man's face instantly changes from mad to guilt. "I'm…I'm sorry I had no idea….please forgive me." he says with regret as he bows. "It's ok we know you didn't mean any disrespect." says Keitaro to the man.

The man sits back into his chair and reaches over to the table beside him and picks up a Japanese translated version of People Magazine. He goes on to read an article about the latest Jackie Chan movie being filmed in Japan.

Another hour slowly passes by and the room has been silent for almost the entire time except for the occasional nurse who walks in and then walks out. Sara has gotten up a couple of times and has paced the room before sitting back down. Motoko has been sitting in her chair looking like she is meditating. But everyone knows that she is just as upset about this as they are. Naru hasn't moved ever since she sat down. She has a look of total guilt on her face still thinking that this was all her fault. Kitsune keeps silently reassuring Naru that it wasn't her fault. Haruka has steeped out on the balcony over looking the hospital gardens a couple of times to have a smoke. Keitaro at 1 point did turn the T.V. back on, with the volume down, trying to find something that they could watch, but every channel was having a special report about the shooting so he just turned it right back off. The Maeharas have just been sitting and waiting for any news.

Suddenly a loud growl gets everyone's attention. They all look over to Su who is holding her stomach. "I guess I'm hungry." she says in a depressed way.

Miss there are a couple of vending machines around the corner in the adjoining room over there." says the man as he points to the far right side of the waiting room right beside the balcony door. "Thank you." says Su in a depressed voice.

Su slowly stands up and walks around the corner to the adjoining room. A few seconds later the sound of a couple of coins can be heard going into the slot and a bag of something drops. Then the sound of the slot being opened can be heard. A few seconds later she comes back around the corner and back to her seat. She opens up the bag of what ever she got and reaches inside and grabs something. She brings it up to her mouth and begins to slowly munch on it. Keitaro looks over and sees it's a bag of mini chocolate chip cookies. He is also surprised to see Su just slowly munching on the cookies instead of inhaling them like she does with all her food. He can tell that she is taking this very hard.

Another 2 hours torturingly go by. Su is still slowly munching on her cookies that she still hasn't finished and looks to be just starring off into space. Sara has fallen asleep on Motoko's arm. Naru has also nodded off out of shear exhaustion. Kitsune has decided on a beauty magazine to read. Haruka is out on the balcony again smoking another cigarette. Keitaro was fed up with sitting and had gotten himself a bag of chips and started to pace the floor himself. The Maeharas had walked up to the nurse's window and had asked if there was any word yet. They got a "not yet" as an answer.

Another 10 minutes go by and finally a surgeon with some blood on his shirt and pants walks through the doors. "Mr. and Mrs. Maehara?" he says.

Motoko wakes up Sara and Kitsune wakes up Naru and they all walk up to the surgeon. They stare at him for a second eagerly waiting for his announcement.

He looks at the ground a second and takes a deep breath. He then looks up at the group and then directly to the Maeharas. "She survived the surgery." he says. Everyone gives a big sigh of relief to that.

"We were able to close up the wounds to her liver, kidney, and intestine. We managed to get the second bullet out of her kidney also. It took us more than an hour and a half alone just to close up the liver. And it took us just under 45 mins to repair the kidney and intestine. We spent the rest of the time doing delicate surgery to her back being very careful we didn't cause any damage to her spine. We where forced to remove the entire vertebra that was shattered do to the bullet. Because of that we had to fuse the 2 vertebras above that one and then replace the removed vertebra with an artificial plastic one." he gets through explaining. "Now the liver is a very resilient organ. It's the only organ that is able to regenerate itself from just a small piece of tissue. So the part of the liver that was removed should be able to grow back." he adds.

"That's the good news." he hesitantly says after a moment. Everyone looks at him with a bit of surprise.

"While working on her liver all her vitals just suddenly crashed without warning. We were forced to stop what we were doing and concentrated on trying to revive her. We shocked her heart for 8 minutes before we finally got her back. However because her brain went without oxygen for more than 5 minutes she has slipped into a very deep coma, one that she might not ever wake up from." he says sadly.

Mrs. Maehara begins to cry again while everyone else looks on with shook.

"If it's any consolation she is breathing on her own without a respirator." he adds.

Keitaro looks at the surgeon's sad expression and then notices someone being wheeled away behind him through the glass door.

After a minute Mrs. Maehara speaks up. "Can we see her now?" she asks.

"Not yet, they are still setting up everything in her room. I will tell one of the nurses to come get you when they are ready for you all." says the surgeon. "Thank you." says Mr. Maehara.

"By the way your daughter was extremely lucky today. See since gun shoot victims are rare in Japan not many surgeons here have had much experience in that field. But we had an American head surgeon from Los Angeles visiting our facilities for a week. Since Los Angeles sees a lot of gunshot victims he has a lot of experience in that field. He offered us his help and we accepted. Without his help I'm sure that your daughter wouldn't have survived the surgery." he gets through explaining.

"We did our best; all we can do now is wait and hope." he finishes. He bows respectfully and walks out of the room.

The group is a bit confused at what they should be feeling right now. And they stay that way for the next 10 minutes before a nurse walks in.

"Her room is ready, you may see her now." says the nurse as she motions to everyone to follow her.

They follow the nurse back the way they came but instead of turning left to go to the elevators she turns right down another hallway. They reach room 415 and walk in. What they see upsets many of them. Although the absents of a ventilator and tubes in her mouth is somewhat reassuring, the sight of an oxygen mask over her mouth, a half a dozen IV bags with various medications and nutrients dripping into 1 tube going into one arm and 2 blood bags hooked up to her other arm, the wires on her chest and on her finger hooked up to the heart monitor, and the sight of a 2ft streak blood stain across her gown indicating where the sutures are, is a very upsetting sight indeed.

The group slowly walks into the room and surrounds the bed, but keeps a bit of distance. All except Naru who stays back a ways still feeling a big since of guilt over her. Kitsune also stays back a bit right beside her. After a brief moment the Maeharas slowly walk up to the bed. Mrs. Maehara takes a hold of Shinobu's right hand and kneels down beside the bed, while Mr. Maehara stands right behind her and places his hands on her shoulders.

"Shinobu. It's mommy. Can you hear me?" says Mrs. Maehara while squeezing Shinobu's hand hopping for a squeeze of the hand in return. But there is no response, not even a twitch from Shinobu. Mrs. Maehara slowly lowers her head and then brings it back up after a couple of seconds with tears running down her face. Mr. Maehara just stands there with a couple of tears going down his face.

Su unable to take this sight begins to whimper with tears building fast in her eyes. She then turns and starts to cry into Motoko's sleeve. Motoko slowly turns and gives Su a hug trying to comfort her. Sara stands there just staring at Shinobu with tears building in her eyes and sniffing every few seconds trying her best to hold her sorrow in. Naru has some tears falling again while also sniffing. Kitsune, Haruka and Kietaro just stand there with very saddened looks on their faces.

An hour goes by and not much has changed. Then comes a knock at the door and the same nurse from an hour ago walks into the room.

"I'm sorry but visiting hours over. If you're not any of her next of kin I'm going to have to ask you to leave now." says the nurse in a calm voice.

"But!" says Su a bit loudly.

"I'm sorry Miss. It's the hospital's policy." says the nurse calmly.

Haruka cheeks her watch. "Oh it's this late already?" she says with a bit of surprise. (What little surprise she does show) "I've got to be heading back anyway….I left Mutsumi in charge of the Tea House. She's probably blown up something by now." finishes Haruka. The others agree to leave.

They had just started to leave when there is another knock at the door. The nurse turns around and opens the door and in walks a police officer.

"Can I help you?" asks the nurse. "Yes. I was told that I could find a Miss Narusagawa here." he says.

"I'm her." says Naru as she stands up trying to collect herself. "Can I help y- Hey it's you! You're the police officer that was 1st at the store. What are you doing here?" she asks with a bit of surprise.

"I came here for 2 reasons. 1st was so I could give this to you." he says as he hands something to Naru.

"Oh! My purse! Thank you very much." she says as she grabs her purse.

"You're welcome. The 2nd reason is because we need your statement. We have all the witnesses' statements except yours and Miss Maehara's." he says calmly.

"Of course. We were just about to leave anyway." says Naru as she and the rest of the group leave the room.

After giving her statement to the best of her recollection, Naru and the rest of the group leave the hospital to go back to Hinata Sou, leavening Shinobu alone with her parents.

Another hour slowly goes by as the Maeharas sit in some chairs beside Shinobu's bed. Mr. Maehara suddenly gives a slight laugh and smiles as he faces Mrs. Maehara who is now looking at him.

"Do you remember the 1st time all 3 of us were together at a hospital?" he asks with a smile. Mrs. Maehara gives a smile of her own. "How could I forget? That was the happiest day of my life." she says with a happy sigh.

End of Chapter 3

To be continued in Chapter 4- Remembering Memories: Part 1

Author note: See I told you I wasn't going to kill her. The next few chapters will be a bit confusing because they will be jumping around a bit because of the different memories plus it takes place in Shinobu's dreamy state of coma. I just wanted to warn you about that. The story will also start to get away from the gloominess that it has been going through for the 1st 3 chapters so there is a bit a good news for you all.

Story Hint: The Yakuza is the Japanese mafia. They are not as tolerant to people who are late paying them back money or other commodity as the Italian mafia here in America. They are very ruthless in their killings as you might have already read from my story.


	4. Remembering Memories Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains seines of brief nudity. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 4- Remembering Memories: Part 1**

"Do you remember the 1st time all 3 of us were together at a hospital?" Mr. Meahara asks with a smile. Mrs. Meahara gives a smile of her own. "How could I forget? That was the happiest day of my life." she says with a happy sigh.

(o)

Shinobu moans and slowly opens her eyes and notices that she's in a very bright, very white, very big (yet somehow confining) room. She looks around for a second or 2 noticing there aren't any windows, doors, or any other source for the bright white light.

"Huh? Where am I? What happened to me?" she asks confusingly with a slight echo in the room. Suddenly she gets a surprised look her face.

"That's right I was shot!" she says to herself. She looks down as she feels her stomach. "But where are my wounds?" she asks confusingly as she sees no bullet wounds. "Am I dead?" she wonders Then she notices something else.

"Ahh! I'm naked!" she says loudly as she covers herself. She slowly lowers her hands remembering that no one else is around to see her. Then she notices that her body is surrounded by a bright, misty like light that is blurring all noticeable parts.

She looks around again. "Where is this place?" she asks confusingly again.

"Come on honey you can do it!" shouts a voice in the room. "NNNNNYYYYAAAHHHHHH!" comes a blood curdling scream.

Shinobu is startled by all the yelling. "Where is that coming from?" she asks out loud.

Suddenly the room starts to glow very brightly and Shinobu is forced to close her eyes. After a moment the glow fades away and Shinobu slowly opens her eyes. She notices that she is facing a wall in another room, this time it has floral patterned wallpaper.

"Ok honey another good push now!" "NNNNNNYYYYAAAHHHHH!" comes another louder scream from behind her. She turns around quickly and sees that she is in a hospital room with a woman on a bed, a doctor between her legs, and a man standing beside the woman holding her hand.

Shinobu slowly walks over to the bed that the woman is on. "What's going on here?" she asks. No one answers her; no one even notices she's there even after she waves her hand in front of them. She is even more confused now.

"NNNYYAAHHHH!" screams the woman again. "Very good push Mrs. Maehara. This baby should be out any minute now." says the doctor between the woman's legs.

"Mrs. Maehara? Baby?" Shinobu says confusingly with a bit of surprise. She looks back to the woman and man and then realizes something. "Mom? Dad?" she says with a bit of shock. She looks closer and sees that it's her parents but a lot younger somewhere in their mid 20's. Then something pops into her head.

"GASP! I must be witnessing my own birth!" says Shinobu with surprise.

"NNNNYYAAAHHHHH!" screams Mrs. Maehara once more. "Ok it's out!" says the doctor. "It's a girl!" he adds. The doctor turns the baby over and gives it a smack on the butt causing Shinobu to cringe a little. "WWAHHH!" screams the baby.

A nurse cleans and then wraps the baby into a blanket and hands her over to Mrs. Maehara. "She has a beautiful head full of dark blue hair." comments the nurse.

"She has your eyes." says Mrs. Maehara to Mr. Maehara. "But she has your beauty." says Mr. Maehara. Shinobu blushes a little.

"So what are you 2 going to name her?" asks the doctor while cleaning up "the mess". The 2 parents look at each other confusingly. "You know we haven't been able to decide on one." says Mr. Maehara.

Mrs. Maehara gets an idea and looks over to the nurse. "Excuse me ma'am?" she asks. The nurse turns around quickly. "Can I ask what your name is?" asks Mrs. Maehara. "My name is Shinobu, ma'am." says the nurse. Mrs. Maehara looks up at Mr. Maehara.

"So what do you think?" she asks. "I think it's perfect. Little Shinobu." says Mr. Maehara as he looks at baby Shinobu. Shinobu gives a grin at this lovely sight. Then the baby looks right at Shinobu, startling her a bit, and the room once again glows a bright white, blinding Shinobu causing her to close her eyes once more.

As the glow fades once again Shinobu slowly opens her eyes. She notices that she is now standing in a familiar living room but she just can't put her finger on it.

"Come on Shinobu you can do it!" says a man's voice from be behind her. Shinobu turns around and sees her parents kneeling and waving at something. She looks over and sees a dark blue hired toddler standing up holding onto a couch. She realizes that the toddler is her. She walks over to her parents looking on cautiously.

"Come on Shinobu. Come on." says Mrs. Maehara holding out her hands at little Shinobu. Shinobu watches as little Shinobu slowly lets go of the couch's edge and takes a step toward her parents, then another, and another, and another!

"That's it! You're doing it! You're doing it!" cries out her father. Shinobu watches as little Shinobu gives a big smile as she gets closer to her mother.

Another couple of steps and she reaches her mother. "Yeah you did it Shinobu! You did it!" laughs her parents as they pick up little Shinobu who is also giggling. "Ma Ma!" says little Shinobu. Both parents look at her suddenly with bewilderment.

"Shinobu you just took your 1st steps and said your 1st word on the same day!" both parents say proudly as little Shinobu laughs with them as they playfully dance around the room.

Shinobu laughs a bit too as she watches the sight with a big smile. "I never knew I took my 1st steps and said my 1st word all on the same day." she says as she wipes a tear of happiness from her face.

Suddenly toddler Shinobu looks directly at Shinobu and the room once again glows brightly causing her to cover her eyes again by closing them.

The bright glow once again fades away and Shinobu opens her eyes. She looks around to see a familiar long hallway. She sees many kids walking down the hallway. Some with a parent or parents, and some without.

"This is my old elementary school!" Shinobu says to herself. She looks around for a moment or 2 looking at the familiar hallway thinking of all memories that she made here.

"Mommy. I'm too scared." says a little girl from behind Shinobu. Shinobu turns around to see a little girl about 5 years of age slowly peaking out from behind a woman's dress looking a bit frightened with a couple of tears falling from her eyes. The woman turns around and kneels down to the little girl.

"I know you're a bit scared because it's your 1st day of school, but Shinobu we told you everything will be fine." says the woman as she takes a tissue and wipes away a couple of tears from the little girl's face.

"Now I remember! This was my 1st day of school!" says Shinobu a bit surprised. "I remember I was so scared then." she adds. She looks back up at the little girl that was sniffing and looking at her mother with big puppy dog eyes.

"But mommy…"says little Shinobu. "Come on Shinobu. I'll walk you to your room ok." says Mrs. Maehara. Little Shinobu looks down at the ground with a very saddened look knowing that there is no way to get out of it. "….Ok." she says. Both of them start walking to a room down the hallway.

Shinobu follows them (knowing the way) to room 23-A. As she enters the room, a flood of memories come rushing back of her kindergarten years. She looks over to see her young self grasping onto her mother's dress not wanting to let go.

"Come on Shinobu you're going to have to let go of me now. I have to go now so why not go over there have some fun with those children with the ball. I'm sure you'll make a lot of friends." says her mother while pulling Shinobu's hands off her dress. She kneels down and gives little Shinobu a kiss on the cheek and then walks out of the room.

Shinobu watches as her younger self walks over to the chair in the corner desk and just sits down with some tears falling from her eyes. Shinobu wants to go over to comfort herself but a little blonde girl beats her to it.

"Hi!" the little girl says with a yelping hello startling little Shinobu out of her tearful stare. "Hello there! I'm Shiko Aowyama. Pleased to meet you!" says the little blonde girl as she bows happily.

"Gasp! Shiko! My 1st friend!" says Shinobu with a surprised look.

"Um….hello….I'm Shinobu Maehara. Pleased to meet you too." says little Shinobu with a very shy soft voice just barely above a whisper as she stands and bows. "Want to come play dolls with me over by the book shelf?" asks Shiko. "Um….Ok I guess." answers little Shinobu. Shinobu watches as Shiko grabs little Shinobu's hand and pulls her to the book shelf.

Shinobu watches happily as the 2 of them play together, sit beside one another in class, and talk a lot to each other all the class day, but near the end of class she hears Shiko ask her the question that would change her life forever.

"Hey Shinobu. Would you like to come to my place after school?" asks Shiko. "Um…If my mom says it's alright then I guess I can." answers little Shinobu.

The room flashes with light again and the seine changes. Shinobu looks around and sees a long flight of steps. She hears some giggling ahead of her and looks up to see her younger self and Shiko already half way up the steps. Shinobu rushes to catch up with them. When she reaches the top of the steps she is all out of breath. She looks up to see a very familiar sight.

"It's Hinata Sou!" she says out loud.

She hears someone talking and looks up to see the 2 talking to each other. "Wow! Is this your mansion?" asks little Shinobu. "No silly this is Hinata Inn. My dad works as a waiter at tea shop next door and my mom works as a maid in the inn, so the woman who owns both places lets us live here for free. In fact my room is just across the hallway from her room! My parents sleep in the room right next to mine." explains Shiko. "Oh you're so lucky. I wish I could live in a big place like this." says little Shinobu.

The 2 girls head inside. As Shinobu follows them she starts to remember all the good times she had with Shiko. Then she remembers where Shiko is taking little Shinobu.

They reach the top part of Hinata Inn and Shinko starts to climb up onto the roof. "Oh wait isn't that dangerous!" calls out little Shinobu. "Don't worry I come up here all the time; this is my secret special place." she says as she reaches the top part of the roof and starts to go across. "Come on Shinobu I want to show you something!" calls out Shiko again.

Little Shinobu hesitates for a second before slowly climbing onto the roof. She reaches the top and slowly walks across the roof to where Shiko is near the edge. Shinobu also follows.

"Look!" says Shiko as she eagerly points out. Little Shinobu looks to the direction Shiko is pointing. "WOW! What a view!" she shouts in amazement. Little Shinobu and Shiko stare out at the evening sunset overlooking all of Hinata town. "You can see all of Hinata town and even a part of Tokyo over to your left from here." says Shiko. Little Shinobu just stands there staring at the sight with a look of amazement on her face.

"This is my special place I like to come too when I'm feeling down. So I thought since you were down a bit today I would share this place with you. We can come here together when ever we feel down." says Shiko.

Shinobu is crying some more tears of happiness when she looks back up to see little Shinobu looking right at her. The bight glowing white light comes again blinding Shinobu once more.

As the glow fades Shinobu slowly opens her eyes to see a very familiar sight. "Hey! My old room at the restaurant!" she says to herself. She hears a giggle behind her. She turns around to see an 8 year old Shinobu playing with some dolls.

"He He!" giggles the younger Shinobu as she plays with her dolls. "I can't wait for Shiko to get here. We're going to have a great slumber party! He He He!" the younger Shinobu giggles some more.

"Oh God! Not this please anything but this memory!" says Shinobu fearfully.

The younger Shinobu looks up at the clock. "But it's already 9:00. She was supposed to be here 2 hours ago. I hope she didn't forget." adds the younger Shinobu.

Then there is a knock at her door. "Come in!" the younger Shinobu calls out thinking it's Shiko. But instead her mother walks in looking extremely shaken up.

The younger Shinobu looks at her mother confusingly. "What's wrong mommy?" she asks. Mrs. Maehara looks up with tears starting to poor down her face.

"I'm so sorry Shinobu, but Shiko and her family…..were killed in a car accident on the way up here." says Mrs. Maehara. The young Shinobu who was now standing just stares at her mother, dumbfounded at what she has just heard.

"What?" asks the younger Shinobu confusingly.

"They were going through an intersection; they had the right of way, but a speeding freight truck blew through the intersection at the same time and slammed into their car. Shiko and her parents were all killed instantly." explains Mrs. Maehara while crying a bit. Younger Shinobu just stands there in shock for a few seconds when her eyes fill up with tears and she drops her doll that she had been holding.

"Oh Shinobu I'm so sorry!" says her mother as she kneels to the ground with her arms open. Younger Shinobu runs into her mother's arms and begins to cry very heavily.

Shinobu also starts to cry as all the heartache from that day comes rushing back. She looks back up briefly to see younger Shinobu looking right at her, and then the bright white glow comes back quickly and blinds her once again.

The glow fades away and Shinobu opens her eyes once again. She sees that she is in the main room of Hinata Inn with a bunch of people wearing black. "Sniff This is the gathering of family and friends at Hinata Inn for Shiko and her parents right after their funeral." remembers Shinobu.

She sees Grandma Hina and Haruka talking to some people over in the corner, and she walks over to them.

"So what are you going to do with the Inn Mrs. Hina?' asks a man in black. "Well I'm suddenly out 2 hard working employees. So I guess I have no other choice but to close it." says Grandma Hina.

"Well I might know of a way to save the place. My brother had an inn in Asahikawa that began to falter. So he converted it into an apartment building and it ended up saving his career." says the same man.

"An apartment building you say? Hmmm that is a good idea. The tenants would be responsible for cleaning there own rooms and cooking there own food. I would still be reliable for repair and upkeep of the building itself but this would earn enough money to save the place so maybe I will convert it into an apartment, but only for women. I've seen how messy and destructive men can live so an all girls dormitory I think would be best." (Yeah right!) finishes Grandma Hina.

"Excuse me Mrs. Hina, but have you seen my daughter?" asks a woman in a long black dress. Shinobu looks up to see her mother asking the question.

"Let's see. You may want to cheek the roof." answers Grandma Hina. "Huh? Why the roof?" asks Mrs. Maehara. "Well because she and Shiko use to go on the roof all the time. It was their special spot where they would go when ever they felt bad. It really has an amazing view of Hinata Town." says Grandma Hina. Mrs. Maehara heads to the roof while Shinobu follows her, knowing what is about to happen next.

When they reach the roof, Mrs. Maehara looks around a bit until she sees younger Shinobu on her knees with her hands up to her face balling her eyes out near the edge of the roof.

"I remember this. I had been on the roof crying in the same spot for almost 20 mins before my mother found me." says Shinobu to herself. Mrs. Maehara hesitates for a moment before calling out to young Shinobu.

"Shinobu!" her mother calls out. "It's about time to leave. Come on down so we can go ok." Mrs. Maehara calls out. Younger Shinobu looks back and slowly nods her head. She stands up and starts to turn around. But because of all the tears that younger Shinobu had been crying there was a small wet spot on the roof. Younger Shinobu steps right on it and her foot slips right out from under her and she begins to fall backwards.

Mrs. Maehara has just turned around to head back downstairs when she hears a scream from behind her. She turns around quickly to see a foot go off the edge. "SHINOBU!" screams her mother. All they hear next is a loud thud. Shinobu sees her mother jump the railing and run to the edge of the roof repeatedly screaming her name. Then the bight light flashes and blinds Shinobu for a few seconds.

When the light fades she sees she is in a hospital waiting room. "Mr. and Mrs. Maehara." says a voice from behind her. She turns around to see a doctor talking to her parents.

"Your daughter was incredibly lucky today. Although she landed hard on her left side suffering a sprained left ankle, a broken left arm, a couple of bruised ribs on her left side and receiving a mild concussion from the impact she will be fine in a few weeks. Man she was lucky those bushes where there to break her fall from a 4 story building. Just have her take it easy for the next couple of weeks and she should heal just fine." finishes the doctor.

A nurse wheels out a bandaged up girl through the door into the waiting room in a wheel chair. Her parents walk up to her a give her a loving hug of relief. "Oh Shinobu thank goodness your alive." says her Mother. "I'll be ok mom really." says the younger Shinobu.

"Yes. But you are not allowed to go up on that roof anymore. It's far too dangerous!" says her mother while her father nods in agreement but then speaks up himself.

"If fact you can't ever go back to that inn." he says forcefully. "And why not?" yells her mother. "Because that whole place is dangerous! That place is falling apart! I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hole there just covered by a weak piece of cardboard that she could easily fall through somewhere!" argues her father.

"That was the place where her best friend grew up! So why can't she go visit every so often?" shouts her mother. "I'm not letting my daughter go inside a hazardous area like that ever again! She was lucky this time but what happens if something fell on her huh?" shouts her father back.

The shouting keeps getting louder until the doctor asks them to leave because they are making quite a big seine. Both young Shinobu and Shinobu let out a sigh.

"This was the worst day of my life. 1st I had to go to my best friend's funeral, then I fell off the Hinata inn roof injuring myself, then I was restricted from ever going there again, and this was the day when all the arguments between my parents started that lead to their divorce. I would be very depressed for a long time after this day, until HE came into my life." she says to herself. She then looks over and sees the younger Shinobu looking right at her and then the bright glow returns once again blinding her for a few moments.

When the light fades she sees that she's in the bright white room once again. She's feels a bit depressed from the last couple of memories that where shown to her, and yet she also feels a bit relieved that they were over.

She stands in the room for what seemed like an hour until she hears some foot steps. She looks around but sees no one until the room glows a bright white once again blinding her.

The bright light fades and she opens her eyes to the long flight of steps again. She hears foots steps beside her again and she looks over to see her 10 year old self walking up them. Shinobu follows herself to the top. As she reaches the top she sees 5 people standing in the front of Hinata Sou. Grandma Hina, Haruka, a slightly younger Naru and Kitsune who are in their high school uniforms and a younger Su clutching Kitsune. Then she realizes something.

"This is the day in which I decided to move to Hinata Sou!" she says with amazement.

End of Chapter 4

To be continued in Chapter 5- Remembering Memories: Part 2

Author Note: Sorry this one ran a little long but I had a lot of ground to cover in this chapter. I hope you have found the pattern to the story. If you haven't then you probably won't figure it out until I in one of the last chapters.

Story Hint: Shiko is a character I made up to help explain why Shinobu turn out the way she did before she met Kietaro. I hope you all found it to be acceptable. Also Shinobu's past may not have gone this way so I made it up a bit. And if you haven't noticed I am using elements from both the manga and anime versions of Love Hina so I hope you all have read and seen both of them, otherwise you might get a bit lost in a couple of areas. Also the part about Grandma Hina converting the Inn into a dormitory is true, it was called Hinata Inn until it was converted. Its name was then changed to Hinata Sou.


	5. Remembering Memories Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains seines of under age drinking, nudity, and a few "choice" words. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 5- Remembering Memories: Part 2**

"This is the day in which I decided to move to Hinata Sou!" says Shinobu with amazement.

Shinobu looks over and sees her younger 10 year old self hesitate for a second because of the unfamiliar faces but then slowly make her way to the group of people. Shinobu follows right behind her. As younger Shinobu approaches the group Grandma Hina and Haruka notice her and are a bit shocked to see her.

"I don't believe it! Is that you Shinobu?" asks Grandma Hina with a little disbelief. Shinobu slowly and shyly nods her head. "Wow it's been 2 whole years, my how you have grown!" says Grandma Hina with a smile. The other girls look on with curiosity.

"Grandma Hina do you know this girl?" asks a younger Su. "Oh why yes. She used to come around here all the time when-" Grandma Hina stops when she sees pain starting to form in younger Shinobu's face. "Um never mine that, but yes I knew her when she was younger." restates Grandma Hina.

"So Shinobu what brings you here? Your parents told us that you were too scared to ever come back here because of your accident." says Haruka careful not to tell the others about Shiko. They all notice younger Shinobu lower her head in sadness.

"I remember. My parents had lied to them about why I couldn't come over anymore. I never knew that until I heard it from Haruka. Inside I felt so mad at them for lying. This only added fuel to the fire of why I wanted to move to Hinata Sou." says Shinobu to herself.

Grandma Hina seeing that she isn't getting much of a response from younger Shinobu turns to the other girls. "Would you girls mind if we could talk alone please." she asks. The others look slightly surprised at the request. "Ok." says Naru. She, Kitsune, and Su leave to go to their after school programs. (Kitsune only goes so she can look for boys)

"Come on in Shinobu." says Grandma Hina as she opens the door to Hinata Sou. Younger Shinobu hesitates for a second before following, followed by Shinobu.

"So what brings you here?" asks Haruka again. "Well…" starts younger Shinobu shyly. "Have you heard about how my parents are separating?" she asks. "Yes I heard that. A shame really." says Grandma Hina.

"Well now they are fighting over who gets custody over me and so they are fighting and yelling even louder now. I can't stand it any longer." says younger Shinobu with a few tears building in her eyes. "So I was wondering if I could board here. I want to get away from all the yelling and fighting. They would only continue this even if one of them 'won' me." explains younger Shinobu some more.

"Hmm." says Grandma Hina deep in thought. "Shinobu, let's take a walk." she says as she stands. Younger Shinobu looks up suddenly a bit surprised. "…Ok" she says after a brief moment. Younger Shinobu stands up and walks out of the room with Grandma Hina followed by Haruka and Shinobu.

All of them start walking up the stairs to the 2nd floor. "So Shinobu." speaks up Haruka as they go up the stairs. "Your parents told us that after Shiko died and after your fall that you were too scared to come here anymore, so why did you suddenly decide to want to board here?" she asks.

"They lied to you." says younger Shinobu. Both Grandma Hina and Haruka look at her with a bit of surprise. "I wanted so badly to come visit you guys at Hinata Inn. Even if was only briefly. The only reason why I couldn't come is because my parents totally restricted me from even coming here. And now there closing the restaurant and are both moving to different parts of the city and want to bring me along! I can't stand it any longer! Please let me live here. I cook a lot so maybe I could be the Inn's chief or something like that." says the younger Shinobu.

"Shinobu you should know that this isn't an Inn anymore. I converted it into an apartment building shortly after Shiko and her parents died. This is now an all girls dormitory." says Grandma Hina. Younger Shinobu looks at her with a bit of shock. "I would be happy to take you in as a tenant, but we would have to have your parents' permission to do so." adds Grandma Hina.

"Don't worry about that. I plan on telling them that I can't stand living with either one of them anymore with the constant fighting and arguing. I'll make them understand." says Younger Shinobu sternly. Grandma Hina gives a slight smile.

All 4 women are now walking slowly down the hallway headed toward the manager's room. After a brief moment of silence Grandma Hina speaks up. "Shinobu, do you want to see her room?" she asks. Shinobu looks at her like she had just been slapped. "Not much has changed since that day. Her only other living relative, an aunt, came by a few days after the funeral and had taken some stuff out her parents room and her room but a lot of her stuff is still left. Most of it in boxes because I was planning on sending some of it to charities around the Tokyo area, but now that you're here maybe I should let you have 1st pick." says Grandma Hina giving younger Shinobu a loving smile. Young Shinobu hesitates before answering.

"If you don't want to I'll understand." says Grandma Hina. "No. It's ok. I want to see her room." answers younger Shinobu. "Ok then follow me." says Grandma Hina. After a moment they reach Shiko's room.

Younger Shinobu stands there for a second or 2. "You ready?" asks Grandma Hina. Younger Shinobu slowly nods her head and reaches for the handle. She hesitates for a second just before her hand reaches it, but then forces her self to grab it. She slides open the door with wide open eyes. She looks into the room seeing several boxes at the foot of the large bed with no sheets on it. Younger Shinobu slowly walks into the room.

"Well leave you alone for now." says Grandma Hina as she and Haruka start to walk away. Young Shinobu nods her head but doesn't turn her head. After a moment of taking the sight in she turns around and shuts the door in Shinobu's face. Shinobu is shocked for a second after the door is abruptly closed in her face. Then she realizes that her younger self can't see her. (At least she thinks so)

She reaches down to grab a hold of the handle but her hand goes right through it. She looks on with a stunned face at seeing this. She then grits her teeth and walks right through the door. After entering she can see her younger self standing in the middle of the room looking around a bit.

Younger Shinobu looks around and sees a lot of the stuff she remembers isn't there, probably packed away in the boxes. But a lot of other stuff is still out. She looks over and sees some pictures of Shiko and her parents on Shinko's desk. She walks over to pick one of them up and a tear splashes onto the frame. Younger Shinobu wipes her eyes trying to keep all the emotion building up at bay. She places the photo down and picks up another one. She sees it's of her and Shiko in the 2nd grade having their arms around each other's shoulders. She's used to seeing this picture because she has a copy of the picture on her desk back in her room. Younger Shinobu gives a slight smile at this tender sight. She then puts it back down.

Young Shinobu then walks over to the book shelf. Some of the books have been packed away already but some of them are still out. Younger Shinobu flips through some of them and puts them back. But then she notices a year book. She picks it up and sees it's their 3rd grade year book. Young Shinobu and Shinobu remember that it came out 1 week before the end of school and 8 days before Shiko's tragic death. She flips to the autograph section in the back of the year book and sees plenty of signatures. Some of the signatures are from people that she knows and some are from other people that she isn't familiar with.

She finally comes upon her signature. _"Shiko we had a great year didn't we! Here's to a great summer and the beginning of a great school year next year! Your best friend, Shinobu. BTW Want to have a sleep over the week after school lets out? Call me and my parents can arrange it! Hope to see you there! "_ she gets through reading the signature.

A couple of tears splatter on the page as younger Shinobu closes the year book and begins to whimper and cry a little holding the book up to her chest. Shinobu walks over and places her hand onto younger Shinobu's shoulder knowing that she would never feel it and she also starts to let some tears roll down her face.

After a couple of minutes Younger Shinobu wipes away her tears trying to gather herself. She stands up and puts the year book back in its place on the book shelf and starts to look around some more. She goes over to the head board of Shiko's bed and sees a lot of bunny dolls and other bunny related stuff. Both of them remember that Shiko was almost obsessed with bunny stuff. In fact her nickname at school was "Usagi (Rabbit) girl." Both Shinobus smile as they remember all of this.

"Shinobu." says a woman's voice from behind the door. The door slides open and Grandma Hina enters the room. "I called your mother and told her that you were over here." she says. Shinobu looks a bit shocked at hearing this. "She sounded a bit upset that you were over here. Don't worry I didn't say anything about you wanting to live here, I only said that since you were moving in a few days that you only wanted to visit Shiko's room one last time. After that your mother sounded like she was ok with it." finishes Grandma Hina with a smile. Young Shinobu gives a slight smile.

"I guess I had better head on home then. I don't want to worry her." says younger Shinobu as she stands up and leaves the room. Shinobu looks around for a few more seconds before turning to the door and seeing her younger self looking right at her.

The bright light once again blinds Shinobu by making her close her eyes. More memories of her and Grandma Hina and Haruka come and go until the bright light blinds her again. After a moment she sees that she is once again in the bright white room. After what seems to be another hour the bright white light once again blinds her.

After a few minutes the bright light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes again. She notices that she is once again in the living room of Hinata Sou. "Happy Birthday Shinobu!" comes a shout from behind her. She turns around and sees everyone sitting around a large table with herself at the head of the table.

She watches as Naru brings out a large cake with 12 candles on it. "Oh boy." says Shinobu as she places her forehead into her hand shaking her head knowing what is about to happen later. She watches as her younger self takes a deep breath and blows out all but one candle. She then takes another huff and blows it out. Everyone cheers causing her younger self to blush. "Cake time!" yells Su.

Shinobu watches as everyone has their fill of cake and ice-cream. After they eat they move the table over to the side of the room and place some chips and sandwiches on it. Naru then brings out a boom-box and begins to play some techno dance music that everyone but younger Shinobu dances too, including Grandma Hina who is really boogieing down. "Oh. Good Lord." says Shinobu as she places her head into her hand again embarrassed to even look at Grandma Hina shaking her booty.

"Uh Oh! Forgot the punch!" says Naru as she starts to head to the kitchen. "Don't worry. I'll get it." says Kitsune. Shinobu follows Kitsune in to the kitchen. She watches as she brings out 2 large bottles of Sake from under the table. She then spikes the punch with them. Kitsune then gives an evil giggle as she starts to head back into the living room. "This should get Shinobu into the party mood." she says evilly to herself. "Ok punch is served." she calls out as she sets the punch bowl on the table.

She then fills a cup full of sake…err…I mean punch…..um….I mean spiked punch and takes it over to younger Shinobu. "Here you go Shinobu." says Kitsune with an evil looking grin. "Thank you." says younger Shinobu shyly.

"Kit…sun….e." says Shinobu with a lowered head shaking her fist beside her head with a blood vessel pumping madly. Shinobu only watches helplessly as her younger self drinks the punch. She also watches as everyone else including Kitsune start to drink the spiked punch.

After a while everyone is either one their 3rd or 4th cup of punch when the effects of the strong sake begin to take their effect. Su begins to stumble around aimlessly more than usual. Naru is dancing to the music but in a very provocative way. Haruka it a bit red in the face but being an avid alcohol drinker herself the effects of the sake are not impairing her judgment. Grandma Hina…..never mind you don't want to know what she's doing. Kitsune sits to one side just evilly giggling away.

Shinobu watches as her younger self drinks a 5th and then a 6th cup of spiked punch before her eye's glaze over. She then walks over to Naru and starts to dance like no one has ever danced before. (At least in Hinata Sou) The effects of the sake really do a number on younger Shinobu because before you can say "Let's Dance!" younger Shinobu HAS STRIPED ALL HER CLOTHS OFF! All Except for her socks that is. And she is now dancing bare butt naked! Younger Shinobu starts to yell. "I'm a sexy girl! Look at me! I'm sexy!" having just heard a song being played called "I'm a sexy girl." Naru and all the others who can still stand start chasing younger Shinobu around Hinata Sou carrying her cloths trying to get her to put them back on! Thankfully she never goes out side.

This goes on for about 10 minutes before younger Shinobu just stops in the middle of the living room and falls over onto her right side passed out drunk! Naru all out of breath and having her heart pump all the alcohol through her system faster falls forward and passes out drunk. Only Kitsune is left to carry younger Shinobu up the stairs to her room. Younger Shinobu has a big grin on her face as she is carried up the stairs. "Gee. I didn't know I'd get her into this kind of party mood." says Kitsune.

Shinobu standing off to one corner blushing redder than a tomato remembers this to be her most embarrassing night ever, and the wicked hang-over the next morning plus since everyone eventually passed out they never got to give young Shinobu her presents until the next day! Shinobu was so thankful that all the memories of this night were all a blur; that is until now. She takes another look at Kitsune and her passed out self and sees her younger self looking right at her. The bright light comes and once again forcing Shinobu to close her eyes.

More memories of some stuff Kitsune did to her come and go mostly of what has happened since Kietaro arrived. Then the light comes again blinding her again. When the light fades she opens her eyes and sees she is once again in the bright white room.

After what seems to be another hour or so another bright light comes and then fades. As she opens her eyes she notices several large tropical trees in front of her.

"Why am I in Su's room for?" she asks herself. "Oh come one Shinobu!" comes a voice from behind her. Shinobu turns around to Su's door and sees it be flung open with a thwack with Su standing proudly in the door way.

"Come on Shinobu. In the year since you arrived here you haven't once seen my room!" shouts Su as she reaches over to grab something. "It's ok really! I have some more chores to do. Can't this wait?" says a voice from just out side the doorway.

"No. It can't!" says Su playfully as she yanks an 11 year old Shinobu into the doorway. As soon as Younger Shinobu reaches the doorway her eyes grow to the size of tea cup saucers. "Su! I know you were a wild one but I didn't you were this wild! How did you get all of this in here?' says Younger Shinobu with amazement.

"Very carefully. Now come on!" says Su as she grabs younger Shinobu by the hand and pulls her in. "I don't know about this. Knowing you, you probably have some pretty dangerous animals lurking somewhere." says younger Shinobu fearfully.

"Nah. Just a couple of snakes. They all know me because I raised them so they won't bother me." says carefree Su. "But what about me?" adds younger Shinobu.

"Come on Shinobu! What I have to show you is back here in my lab." says Su happily. Younger Shinobu slowly follows Su. Shinobu follows them as they go to the back of Su's room to her lab. When they reach it Su goes over to something in the middle of the lab covered in a sheet. "Not this." says Shinobu with a sweet drop forming behind her head.

"Introducing!" shouts Su as she grabs the sheet. "Robo Shinobu 1000!" she shouts as she pulls the sheet off to revile a robotic version of Shinobu. (Think of Mecha Sara only in Shinobu's form) Younger Shinobu can only look on with shock.

"This baby runs on a nuclear power cell, that wont need replacing for 500 years! I've programmed it to do all the cleaning and cooking the way you do it Shinobu. But once it starts something it won't stop till it's done! Its bullet proof, bomb proof, scratch resistant, in fact it's nearly invincible! It also includes an artificial learning chip to help it memorize better ways of doing stuff like cleaning or cooking." says Su happy over the creation she has built. "I built it to help you get your chores done faster Shinobu." she adds. Younger Shinobu looks up at it cautiously.

"Really? You made it to help me?" asks younger Shinobu. "Yup! It also thinks like you too so you don't have to worry about it going out of control. "Wow! Thank you." says younger Shinobu.

Su hits a button on her control panel and a bolt of electricity shoots into the robot's back activating the nuclear power cell there by "turning on" the robot. The robot's head pops up with a jerk. "_Greetings. How may I be of service to you?" _it says with a robotic Shinobu voice. "Go ahead Shinobu, give it a command." says Su.

"Um ok." says younger Shinobu shyly. "Um. Go wash the windows." commands younger Shinobu. "_Right away."_ answers Robo Shinobu. Its chest plate opens up and out pops a bottle of Windex and a clean rag. The robot then walks out of the room and begins to wash all the windows in Hinata Sou.

"Wow! This is so cool!" says younger Shinobu with a slight smile. As the day goes on the 2 introduce Robo Shinobu to everyone else and it goes around doing all sorts of chores like cleaning, washing cloths, and even repairing a couple of holes in the roof.

Evening comes and all the girls are in the hot springs relaxing and washing. "Wow Su. You finally made a robot that works and doesn't try to take over the world or seek out and destroy something." says Kitsune with a smile. "Yeah the dinner it made with Shinobu was one of the best that I have ever had!" says Naru. Su gives a big grin.

"_Good evening everyone, may I interest you in some strawberry milk?"_ says the robot as it enters the hot springs holding a tray. "Why think you so much Robo Shinobu!" says Kitsune as she stands up. Everyone goes over grabs a glass of strawberry milk and drink it all down. After they are done they place all the glasses back onto the tray. "Thank you Robo Shinobu. You can go wash the glasses now." commands Su.

_"Right away."_ says the robot. The robot turns around to head back into Hinata Sou but in the process steps right onto a bar of soap causing it to slip backwards and fall right into the hot springs with a big splash! "Robo Shinobu!" shouts Su.

Her and younger Shinobu run over pick Robo Shinobu out of the water and stands it up right. As they do water starts to poor out of its lower extremities. "Man this thing weighs a ton!" says younger Shinobu as she picks it up.

_"Malfunction! Malfunction! Malfunction!"_ says the Robo Shinobu repeatedly as smoke begins to bellow out of all its ports. Then sparks start to fly and then it just shuts down after overloading. "Looks like it overloaded." says Kitsune

"I knew I forgot to do something!" shouts Su as she smacks her fist into her other hand. "I forgot to water proof the darn thing." she says as she sticks out her tongue. Everyone does a comic fall.

Suddenly the robot's head pops back up. Its eyes are glowing a deep red. "**_Rebooting. Rebooting. Rebooting."_** It says in a deeper voice. Everyone looks at Su wondering what's going on. She only shrugs. The robot then looks right at younger Shinobu. **_"Target located."_** it says.

A red laser target focuses onto Shinobu's chest. "**_Must kill imposter Shinobu."_** it says some more. "Imposter? But I'm the real Shinobu." says younger Shinobu. **_"Incorrect. I am the real Shinobu."_** says the robot. It slowly starts to walk toward younger Shinobu.

"Um Su. What's going on?" asks younger Shinobu with some panic in her voice as she takes some steps back. "My guess is that some old data has reactivated." answers Su. "What old data?" yells younger Shinobu as she takes some more quick steps backwards. "Remember the AI chip I told you about. Well it's from one of my old soldier robots I made a couple of months ago." answers Su.

"WHAT?" yells younger Shinobu. Suddenly the robot lunges at younger Shinobu. She barely ducks out of the way and begins to run out of the hot springs back into Hinata Sou. The robot gives chase followed quickly by everyone else and Shinobu.

"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" cries out younger Shinobu as she runs up and down the hallways of Hinata Sou in nothing but her towel with tears flapping out of her eyes. She runs through the kitchen desperately trying to get away. Then as the robot also runs through the kitchen it reaches over to the sink and grabs the butcher knife and starts swinging it at younger Shinobu. "HELP!" cries out younger Shinobu again.

"Su! How do you turn that thing off?" yells Kitsune. "There isn't an off button. It was built to be a 24/7 robot. And its power cell won't run out of power for another 500 years." answers Su.

"What about telling it another command?" asks Kitsune. "Won't work. It's programmed to do 1 job at a time and won't stop until the job is done."

"Well is there a self-destruct or something like that?" yells Naru. "There is but it can only be activated by itself!" answers Su. "AND HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" yells Naru even louder.

"Hey Shinobu! Try to figure out a way to make it self-destruct!" calls out Su. "But how?" yells back younger Shinobu. "I programmed it with some of your personality remember, so you would be the only one to know its weaknesses!" shouts back Su. "Are you kidding me! I don't even know my own weaknesses." shouts younger Shinobu.

After a few more minutes of running for her life younger Shinobu is nearing exhaustion. She starts to slow up. But every time she does, the robot swings the knife at her and she is forced to run ahead once again. But her legs are beginning to burn and are getting more tired by the minute. She desperately tries to fill her lungs with air to keep up with the demand on her body, but she is slowly running out of steam.

Young Shinobu is too busy thinking about how tired she's getting that she doesn't even notice that she has reached the roof of Hinata Sou. "Oh No! Im trapped!" she says to herself. Just then the door to the roof crashes open. Robo Shinobu jumps into the air from the bottom step and leaps high in to the air. It comes down with a lot of force behind it aiming the butcher knife right at young Shinobu's head.

"Yahhh!" young Shinobu yelps. But just like someone with the reflexes of a ninja, younger Shinobu moves just slightly to her right. She can hear the knife go right by her ear slicing off a chunk of her hair. She then rolls to her right, gets up and starts running to the railing. She leaps over it and desperately climbs the roof. She runs to the edge of the roof and stops.

Robo Shinobu does one giant leap into the air and lands on top of the roof. At the same time Su and the others reach the top of the stairs. "Shinobu!" cries out Naru. As Robo Shinobu steps closer and closer to younger Shinobu, young Shinobu takes a couple of steps back till she reaches the edge. She looks back a second and then back to Robo Shinobu with desperate fear in her face and tears falling from her eyes. Suddenly she thinks of something.

"Hey you think you're the real Shinobu?" she asks. "**_Affirmative."_** answers the robot. "What is Shinobu?" asks young Shinobu. **_"Shinobu is a human."_** answers the robot. "And what are you?" asks young Shinobu. **_"I am Robo Shinobu 1000"_** answers the robot. "You are a robot correct." asks young Shinobu. **_"Affirmative."_** answers the robot. "Well if you are a robot and the real Shinobu is human than you must be the imposter Shinobu!" shouts young Shinobu. "Therefore if your mission is to kill the imposter Shinobu then you must kill your self." she adds.

"What is she doing?" asks Naru. "I get it she's telling it an infinite possibility." says Su. "A what?" asks Naru. "A question without an end in other words. Since a robot doesn't think like we do it will keep trying to find an answer to it till it overloads." answers Su.

With out warning the robot charges young Shinobu. Young Shinobu drops to her knees and covers her head with her hands waiting for the impending stabbing. But it never comes. She opens her eyes and looks up to see the robot completely stopped with the knife less than an inch away from her head. She also notices the torso of the robot glowing and getting brighter and brighter.

"Shinobu get out of there! It's about to detonate!" cries out Su. Su turns around and shoves everyone back down the stairs. Shinobu has a look of shock on her face because there is nowhere she can go; that is until she spots the hot springs off to the right of the building. She makes a run for it! Robo Shinobu reaches over to try to stop her but is only able to grab young Shinobu's towel. Young Shinobu spins around out of her towel and runs naked to the edge of the building and looks down for a second. She turns back around and sees Robo Shinobu's torso glowing extremely bright. She has no choice but to jump, so she does. She falls for a second or 2 before hitting water. As soon as she hits the water Robo Shinobu explodes in massive explosion sending fire, smoke, steam, and metal parts flying in all directions.

After a few moments young Shinobu comes out of the water and looks up at the damage to Hinata Sou caused by the explosion. Something splashes in front of her in the water. She reaches down and picks it up. It's her butcher knife. She sits down on a rock and breaths a BIG sigh of relief.

Shinobu walks onto the roof and looks out to the hot springs to see her younger self sitting down with a face of big relief. "That's the 2nd time in my life I stared death in the eye and won." she says to herself. She looks at her younger self once again and sees that her younger self is looking right at her. Then the bright light flashes once again blinding Shinobu making her close her eyes again.

Some more memories of her and Su come and go until the light becomes really bright again. When the light fades Shinobu opens her eyes and sees that she is once again in the white room. After what seems to be yet another hour the bright light returns and blinds Shinobu again.

After a moment the light fades again. Shinobu opens her eyes again and sees that she is in her room. "798! 799! 800!" she hears someone callout at a distance. Shinobu turns around to see herself looking out the window to something.

"I wonder what I'm looking at?" she asks herself.

End of Chapter 5

To be continued in Chapter 6: Remembering Memories- Part 3

Author Note: Man it seems like my chapters keep getting longer and longer don't they. Well I'm trying to figure out a way to cut back a bit. It's just that it is so hard for me to do so. Every time I start typing, new things just keep popping into my head and it is hard not to type them. So please forgive me for going on longer than usual. I will try my hardest to make Chapter 6 a bit shorter.

Story Hint: As you can see I mixed some of the anime and manga versions into the story again. I hope you're not finding this annoying. Hey, Kitsune spiking the punch would be just like her wouldn't it! BTW the over use of the words "young" and "younger" are meant to separate the 2 Shinobus in the story so you won't get confused in which Shinobu is talking or being described.


	6. Remembering Memories Part 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains seines of assault and battery, attempted rape, bloody violence, and some "choice" words. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 6: Remembering Memories- Part 3**

"798! 799! 800!" Shinobu hears someone callout at a distance. Shinobu turns around to see her younger self looking out the window to something.

"I wonder what I'm looking at?" she asks herself. She walks over to the window and looks out. She looks up and sees Motoko doing her 1000 morning sword exercise. She looks back over to her younger self look a bit nervous looking a Motoko.

"I wonder if she can give me any help." says the young Shinobu. Suddenly the beeper goes off on her watch. "Time to go hang the cloths out to dry." says the young Shinobu. She then quickly walks out of the room followed by Shinobu.

Young Shinobu walks into the laundry room and puts all the wet cloths from the washing machine in a basket and heads up to the roof. She reaches it and slowly heads up the stairs a little wary of Motoko swinging her sword. She stops near the top and peers out looking at Motoko swinging her sword.

"978, 979, 980!" says Motoko taking another 3 swings. Young Shinobu takes another step and the stair squeaks. "Who's there!" cries out Motoko as the throws a dagger in the general direction if the sound. The dagger catches Shinobu by the hair and stabs into the railing right behind her pinning her there.

"Yahhh!" young Shinobu yelps in fright. "Oh! Miss Shinobu! I'm sorry!" says Motoko as she rushes over to Young Shinobu. She pulls the dagger out of the railing thereby releasing young Shinobu's hair. She then helps young Shinobu up.

"Please forgive me Miss Shinobu. I'm not use to having people walk up quietly from behind while im training. I've only been here 2 weeks so I'm going to need some time to adjust myself to my sew surroundings." says Motoko apologetically. "Um it's ok. I should have announced myself before I came up here." says young Shinobu bowing.

"You can return to hanging up the cloths now Miss Shinobu." says Motoko turning back around. "Um…Shinobu." says young Shinobu. "Excuse me?" asks Motoko. "Just call me Shinobu." answers young Shinobu. "Alright." says Motoko.

Young Shinobu starts to hang up the cloths on the cloths line as Motoko goes back to swinging her sword. A minute later Motoko finishes her exercise, and turns to walk off the roof. Young Shinobu turns around really quick and speaks up.

"Um…Miss Motoko I've been meaning to ask you something." says younger Shinobu. "Yes?" says Motoko as she stops to face young Shinobu. "Well um lately I have been getting these weird looks form some of the boys at school and it's gotten me a bit worried. So I wonder if you could…um….teach me some basic self defense moves if you know any." asks young Shinobu shyly.

Motoko gives a sigh. "Shinobu you're 12 years old and have just started 7th grade. Even I know that at this time in life boys and girls start to notice each other, so getting a few looks from boys isn't anything to get worried about. In fact you should be flattered. After all you have a very cute completion. It's only natural that you would get a few looks." says Motoko. Young Shinobu blushes at her remark.

"Um…well…yes I know about all of that, but it's just some of the looks some boys are giving me are very troubling. I can tell when a guy looks at me he notices my cutness/sexyness what ever. But lately a couple of boys have been giving me more evil looking stares. Not only that, but I think some of the girls are actually jealous of me because some of them have been giving me angered stares and that has me worried too." explains young Shinobu.

"Well if you're that worried then I guess there wouldn't be any harm to teach you a few self defense moves. Besides I like seeing a woman who can protect herself from the perverted ways of a man." answers Motoko. "Oh thank you very much!" yelps young Shinobu happily. "We'll start right after breakfast." says Motoko. "Ok." answers young Shinobu.

Shinobu follows both of them to the dinning room where they eat breakfast. After they finish she then follows them as they head back upstairs to the roof and begin the training.

It only takes a couple of hours before young Shinobu learns the 1st few basic moves. When Motoko finishes the 1st days training she heads back downstairs leaving young Shinobu on the roof. Shinobu looks over at her younger self "reviewing" what Motoko has taught her. Shinobu looks back downstairs as she hears the door close behind Motoko. She looks back up to her young self and sees that she is looking right at her. The bright light once again comes blinding Shinobu.

A moment later the light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes to see she is facing the gate to her Junior High School. rrrriiiinnnnnggggg! goes the school bell. Shinobu turns around to face the school and looks up at the clock tower. "Hmm 1:00 p.m. Must be the Saturday class. Wait a minute! Is this the Saturday after Motoko started training me?" she asks to herself. "Oh I hate what happened to me here." she says to herself in a fearful whimper.

She looks up to see her younger self walking out of the main building's front door with a slight depressed look of her face that she seemed to always have during this part of her life. She follows her as she turns the gate corner to head back to Hinata Sou. They only get about a block from the school when they here a boy calling out to young Shinobu.

"Hey Shinobu! Wait up a second!" calls out the voice. Both Shinobus turn around to see not 1 but 3 boys run up to her. Both Shinobus recognize the boy in the middle as Shimbo (age 14), the school bully, and his 2 "henchmen." The fat one is Hitachi (age 13) and the skinny one is Satoshi (also age 13). Young Shinobu stops and is quickly surrounded by the 3 boys. Nervously young Shinobu speaks up.

"Um…What do you want Shimbo?" she nervously asks. She recognizes him as being one of the boys giving her some of those evil looks at school. Aside from his badass attitude and extremely short temper he is actually quit cute. Even some of the girls are interested in him.

"I was thinking, if you don't have anything to do now we could go on a date." he says confidently. Young Shinobu gets a very shocked look on her face and blushes deeply. "R…Really? You want to do on….a date. With me?" she says very nervously.

"Yeah. I was thinking maybe I'd take you out for dinner and then to a movie, and then back to my place where we could, well you know." he says with a slight evil grin. Young Shinobu lowers her head some still blushing a very deep red. She hesitates to answer.

Well? How about it?" asks Shimbo. After a moment young Shinobu speaks up. "Sorry." she says making Shimbo come out of his arrogant smile. "Thank you for your offer, I'm flattered really, but I don't think I'm ready to go on a date yet. I would like to wait a couple of years before I feel I'm ready. So thank you." she says as she bows. She turns around and starts to walk away.

Hitachi reaches over suddenly and grabs onto Shinobu's arm hard. "Oww! That hurts!" shouts young Shinobu. "I don't think you understand. Our boss wasn't asking you out, he was telling you." he says with a serious face. "And I said I wanted to wait a couple of years before I go out on a date, now please let me go, you're hurting me!" she complains.

Young Shinobu is grabbed from behind by her left shoulder and is turned around quickly and she gets back handed by Shimbo in the face really hard. Young Shinobu falls to the ground hard causing her to drop her bag. She gets back up some and covers her face with her hand from where she was hit. She feels her upper lip and nose start to bleed and her eye hurts. "Why? Why did you hit me for?" she says as she begins to cry.

"Because you pissed me off. I was being nice for once and you turned me down so I had to make you pay. Hitachi. Bring her." commands Shimbo. Hitachi picks Shinobu off the ground covers her mouth so she can't scream with one hand and pins her arms behind her back with the other. Young Shinobu struggles but can't break Hitachi's strong grip. After all he plays on the junior high's wrestling team and is one of the strongest on the team. They "escort" her to an alleyway between 2, 5 story buildings where they go behind some dumpsters. Satoshi stays by the entrance to be a look out in case some one comes by.

When they know that they are out of sight from the street Satoshi joins them. "Well Shinobu I think maybe we should have our date right here. But we're going to skip the dinner and the movie." he says with a sinister smile. Shinobu can only watch in helplessness as they do this.

Shimbo walks up to young Shinobu and gets right up to her face. "Now slut. You're mine." he says sternly. She watches as he reaches down and undoes a few buttons on her shirt until the top part of her bra is reveled. He then reaches down and puts his hand on the inside of her left thigh just above her knee. She can fell his hand slowly start going higher. She begins to struggle and cry a little again as his hand goes under her dress.

He is now is only a couple of inches away from her panties when she looks down and suddenly notices that he is bending his knees to reach under her dress. He is too close to kick, but maybe… Before she has another though in her head she immediately leaps up off her right foot, plants her left foot on his knee and knees him as hard as she can with her right knee. Her knee makes connect with his nose and she can actually feel the bones break against her knee.

"Oh Shit!" he cries out in pain. Before Hitachi has any time to react to this, Shinobu comes up and bites him as hard as she can on his finger. She bites so hard she hears and feels 2 snaps before he lets go. Hitachi yells in pain as he holds his bent, broken finger.

Young Shinobu hears some foot steps behind her. She looks to see Satoshi charging her. "Why you little bitch!" he cries out and he takes a swing at her. She ducks just in time to dodge the punch. She then comes up and thrust palms him in the face, like Motoko showed her, busting his nose. Before he has time to real from the punch young Shinobu kicks him as hard as she can in the nads. Satoshi grabs between his legs and gives a loud moan before his eyes roll back into his head and he passes out. Thinking that she's in the clear Shinobu begins to run.

But before she can even take a step she is grabbed from behind around her throat by someone's forearm. "I'll teach you a lesson with the sleeper hold!" says Hitachi very pissed off. This is his signature move in wrestling. He starts to squeeze hard on her throat. Young Shinobu can fell her airway being closed off as he tightens his grip.

"Hey don't kill the little bitch Hitachi." says Shimbo with his hand holding a handkerchief up to his nose. He then pushes on top of it and popes his nose back into place. He has been in more than one fight so he knows a few ways of putting "stuff" back together after a fight. "Don't worry boss I'm only going to do this until she passes out; then we can have our way with her." says Hitachi in a very evil voice.

After about a minute or so young Shinobu can feel herself staring to slip out of consciousness. Her eye sight starts to get fuzzy and sounds are becoming more and more faint. The pulling on Hitachi's arm becomes less and less forceful. In her mind young Shinobu is panicking, knowing that this is it. Suddenly a memory of her and Motoko comes through.

"Now remember Shinobu. A clouded mind can't fight but a calm mind knows no bounds." says Motoko. "What does that mean?" asks young Shinobu. "You will know when the time comes what this means." answers Motoko. The dream state ends as young Shinobu can feel herself beginning to black out.

She makes one last desperate move to get free. She grabs her right fist into her left hand and elbows Hitachi in the ribs with all her remaining strength. She feels his grip ease off a bit just enough for her to take a breath before his grip clamps back onto her throat. But that breath is all she needed. She reaches down and grabs his balls in her hand and squeezes as hard as she can. Instantly Hitachi lets out a painful howl and he starts to release his grip. When she fells him start falling backwards she lets go and watches him fall to the ground out cold. She also falls to the ground gasping and coughing for breath.

"I had just about enough of you! You little bitch!" yells Shimbo as he tries to kick young Shinobu. Young Shinobu looks up just in time to be kicked in the face hard. She falls backwards onto her butt holding the same eye she was hit on earlier. He goes to kick her again but this time she grabs his foot. She pushes with all her might causing Shimbo to loose his balance and fall backwards onto the ground hitting his head on one of the dumpsters knocking him out cold.

Young Shinobu stands up and looks at the 3 boys lying on the ground. She turns, grabs her bag and runs. She keeps running with tears in her eyes all the way back to Hinata Sou. She runs up the steps, into the door, takes a second to slip off her shoes and runs all the way to the top floor of Hinata Sou. She flings open the roof door and runs up the stairs. She sees Motoko doing some different exercises and runs right toward her.

Motoko looks over to see young Shinobu running to her. "Shinobu?" says Motoko confusingly. Young Shinobu plunges her face into Motoko's stomach and begins to cry loudly. Motoko looks down and sees some blood staining her shirt. "Shinobu! You're bleeding! What happened?" says Motoko with surprise.

Young Shinobu cries a bit more. "I got attacked after school, and was nearly raped! If it wasn't for your self defense training I still would probably still be being raped or worse!" she cries out. She begins to cry again into Motoko's stomach. Motoko puts a hand behind Shinobu head and begins to comfort her.

"Those boys got just what they deserved!" says Shinobu to herself. "After this Shimbo was arrested and was put into Juvenile detention. Hitachi was suspended from school indefinably. And Satoshi was suspended for the rest of the school year." she adds.

Shinobu looks back up at her younger self who is now looking right at her with tears in her eyes with her right eye swelling up. The bright light comes once again blinding Shinobu once more.

More memories of her and Motoko come and go before the light becomes extremely bright again. As the light fades once more, Shinobu sees that she is once again in the bright white room.

What seems like another hour goes by and suddenly Shinobu hears a little bell ring. The light once again comes and blinds her. After a moment the light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes to see racks of cloths in front of her.

"Oh Hello Naru!" she hears someone call out. Shinobu looks behind her and sees Naru and herself come through a door in a small clothing store. "Hello Mr. Johnson." says Naru.

(Author Interruption: Can't use young Shinobu anymore, therefore I will be writing about Store Shinobu more than Coma Shinobu so you can understand this part of the story better. Shinobu will now refer to Store Shinobu while I'll be using Coma Shinobu to talk about the Shinobu in coma.)

"Mr. Johnson? I'm in the store again! But why?" says coma Shinobu to herself. She watches as Naru introduces her to the Johnsons. After a minute Mr. Johnson tells Shinobu that she can have 25 percent off anything in the store. With that Shinobu walks off to the front of the store where the dresses are followed by coma Shinobu.

Shinobu reaches a rack of interesting looking dresses and skirts so she starts to flip through them. She comes upon a plastic covered leather mini skirt. "Ha ha!" giggles Shinobu. "If Kanoko ever tried to hit on Sempai again she could use this because it matches her personality." says Shinobu with a grin. She puts the skirt back and walks over to another rack.

This one is full of Neon colored denim mini skirts. Oranges, yellows, greens, blues, reds, and even neon purple ones. Each skirt has a certain sewn picture on the left side. Some have hearts; others have birds, unicorns, rainbows, teddy bears, bunnies, and other cute pictures. She decides not to get one and so she moves on.

"Hey! You're Right! She does look a bit like Shinobu!" comes a voice from behind her. She glances back to see Naru looking at a picture and having a nice conversation. She turns back around to look at more designer dresses. She goes over to inspect the manikins in the front left window of the store that are wearing dresses.

"Wow these look nice! Especially that flower pattered one. I wonder if there is one folded on the display shelf there in my size." she says to herself. She starts looking through them. Then a white thing out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. She looks over and sees a white Honda speeding down the street.

"Man that idiot is going to kill someone!" she says to herself. "I wonder how fast he's going?" she thinks to herself. She stands there expecting the car to fly by the store at any second.

"What the!" she says to herself surprised as the car suddenly slams on it's breaks causing a big smoke cloud to erupt from behind it. She watches as it comes to a stop in front of the store. "What is up with that driver?" she wonders.

As the smoke cloud envelops the car she notices the two driver side windows open up. She then sees 2 things being aimed at the store. She instantly recognizes the shape of the 2 things.

"GUN!" she cries out. She looks back really quick and notices the driver of the car looking right at her as if he heard her shout too. Her eyes narrow with horror when she watches him train his gun right at her! Before she has time to react, both gunmen open fire on the store.

She watches as the window in front of her shatters into God knows how many thousands pieces. She then feels something hit her stomach like someone hit her with a bat. She stumbles back and hits the wall behind her before she falls forward onto the floor. She holds her stomach as she feels unbearable pain coming from where she was hit.

She looks over from the floor to see Mr. Johnson lean over the counter and give Naru a hard shove, pushing her to the ground. As soon as Naru hits the ground she watches Mr. Johnson get hit in the throat and then in the head. She watches him fall dead onto the ground. She then watches as Mrs. Johnson get hit and fall screaming off the roller ladder into the glass display counter and get impaled with the broken pieces of glass.

Shinobu grabs her stomach tighter as she feels more and more searing pain. She watches as the store gets torn to ribbons by the gunfire. Suddenly the gunfire stops and she hears tires squeal as the car speeds away.

She tries standing but the pain is too much and she falls back on her stomach. She tries again and slowly stands up felling very weak and getting weaker by he second. She feels something wet on her hand. She looks as her hand and sees a lot of blood. "Oh God! I've been shot!" she says to herself fearfully. She slowly starts to walk to the middle of the store where Naru is.

"Shinobu!" she hears Naru call out. "Shinobu! Are you ok?" she hears Naru call out again. She goes around a rack of shredded up cloths and sees Naru. "Shino-" Naru stops when she sees Shinobu.

"Oh Shinobu! Thank God you're-" Shinobu looks right at Naru fearfully when Naru stops. She watches as Naru looks at her stomach. She then feels blood ooze out from between her fingers.

"Shinobu?" she sees Naru say. Shinobu tries to say something back when her vision blurs a bit then goes back to normal. "…..Naru." she says back. She then feels too weak to even stand any more. She can feel her legs give out from under her. She can feel herself land on her knees but even they are too weak to stay up so she starts to fall forward.

"Shinobu!" she hears Naru cry out. The next thing she knows she is looking into Naru's face. "Come on Shinobu! Stay with me girl!" she hears Naru say. She watches as Naru lifts her hand off her wound and look at it for a second. "Oh God!" she hears Naru murmur.

"Someone call for help! Hurry!" she hears Naru shout. "Call for an ambulance! Hurry!" she hears her call again. Shinobu's vision becomes blurry again and this time it doesn't go back to normal. She reaches up and grabs Naru's sleeve. Naru turns to her.

She tries her hardest to take a deep breath but it's coming up short. But she tries her best to speak again. "Naru…….Please tell she gasps again …..Please tell Sempai that I love him." she says again. She sees Naru look at her with anguish. Her hearing starts to fade but she can still hear Naru shout at her. "No! You can tell him that yourself!"

Shinobu suddenly feels very cold but still gives a grin knowing that Naru would tell Kietaro that if she dies on the spot. She can fell her self going as her vision goes black. She tries as hard as she can to keep breathing but even that is zapping her strength fast. The she feels herself black out.

(Author interruption: Coma Shinobu will now be called Shinobu.)

Shinobu watches as Naru calls out her name and begins to cry bitterly. She suddenly hears a crash behind her. She turns around to see some paramedics and a police officer force the busted door open and rush into the store. She watches as the paramedics work on herself and is also surprised to hear one of the paramedics yell that she has a pulse. She then watches as they put herself on a back board and put her and Naru in an ambulance. Before the ambulance takes off Shinobu runs up and jumps into the ambulance.

She watches as the paramedics cut off her shirt and begin to work on her. She then hears a heart monitor go flat line. She continues to watch as they cut off her bra, making her blush, and then shock her making her jump. She hears Naru crying and looking very upset at seeing this.

After a minute or so she watches as the ambulance stops in front of a huge hospital. She gets out and reads the door of the hospital. "Tokyo University Emergency Trauma Center." She follows Naru and the paramedics inside as they wheel her shot self into the hospital. She watches as one of the paramedics stops Naru at the front desk and then go back to wheeling her shot self down a hallway to the left behind the desk.

Shinobu starts to walk to Naru when the she notices her shot self sit up from the cart and look right at her before going around the corner. The bright light once again returns and blinds her.

After a moment the light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes again. Once again she is in the bright white room. She then realizes something. "Hey if I blacked out in the store then how do I remember going to the hospital?" she asks. She ponders this for about an hour when she hears some yelling.

"Come on nurse! Hurry and get those blood bags hooked up!" she hears someone call out. The bright light once again blinds Shinobu. A moment later the light fades and Shinobu opens her eyes.

She sees that she is facing 2 doors. She looks down and sees a checkered floor. "Come on! Come on! Suction! This girl is bleeding out!" she hears someone shout from behind her. She turns around and sees a bunch of doctors and nurses around a gurney working on someone. She walks over to the side trying to see who it is. Finally one of the nurses steps away for a second and Shinobu gets a clear view of who it is. She is shocked to see who it is.

End of Chapter 6

To be continued in Chapter 7- Miracles at work

Author Note: Well I promised that this chapter would a be bit sorter and it is….by a half a page :-P. You curious on why Shinobu is remembering memories that wouldn't make since if she'd blacked out. You'll find out in one of the final chapters. The memory of the store incident is from Shinobu's point of view. The one from the 1st chapter is mainly from Naru's point of view just in case you were wondering.

Story Hint: I know that Shinobu was probably never attacked/attempted raped in her past but I figured this was another main reason why she fell for Kietaro, him being the polar opposite of Shimbo that is. If I offended anyone with that part im sorry.


	7. Miracles at Work

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains scenes of graphic trauma and surgery and a few "choice" words. Reader discretion is advised.

Note: There will be a few medical terms listed throughout the story to explain a few medical things that some of you may not know.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 7- Miracles at Work**

Shinobu turns around and sees a bunch of doctors and nurses around a gurney working on someone. She walks over to the side trying to see who it is. Finally one of the nurses steps away for a second and Shinobu gets a clear view of who it is. She is shocked to see who it is.

"It's….me." says Shinobu with disbelief. "But, how? How can I remember this? I had blacked out not to mention I was sedated." she keeps asking herself. Then the same nurse gets in her way again and her view is blocked. She tries to look between the doctors and nurses but is too short. "Damn I hate being so short." she says with frustration.

Suddenly she feels herself lift off the ground. "What's going on!" she says with surprise. She rises above the doctors and nurses and starts to hover over herself. "First I can walk through walls and now I can fly. What is going on with me?" she wonders.

"Vitals still dropping!" says one of the nurses. "Shit! She's bleeding out faster than we can put more blood in. We have to open her up now!" commands one of the doctors as he gets through placing a plastic tube down shot Shinobu's throat. "But the morphine hasn't had time to take effect yet!" shouts another doctor. "If we don't she won't be needing the morphine!" shouts the first doctor. The other doctor thinks for a second and relents.

"Nurse. Scalpel." says the first doctor putting out his hand to the nurse to his right. "Yes. Dr. Haramara." answers the nurse as she reaches for the trauma tray. She grabs the medium sized scalpel and hands it too Dr. Haramara.

"Good God!" shouts another nurse as she wipes off some blood off of shot Shinobu's stomach. "What is it?" asks the second doctor. "Look! She has two holes in her stomach!" answers the nurse. They look and surely enough there are two holes in her stomach right beside each other. They all stare at them for a moment when suddenly the heart monitor goes flat! "V-Fib!" shouts one of the other nurses.

The other doctor reaches for the defibulator paddles that already have some gel on them. He places them on shot Shinobu's chest. "Clear!" he shouts. Everyone backs off quickly. The doctor presses the button and another shock goes through shot Shinobu's body causing her to jump. The monitor remains flat. The paddles charge up once more and the doctor places them on shot Shinobu's chest again. "Clear!" he shouts again. Everyone backs off again. He presses the button once again, sending another shock through shot Shinobu's body. The monitor starts to beep again.

"She's back!" says one of the nurses. "It's now or never! Ok let's open her up." says Dr. Haramara. A couple of seconds later the nurse finishes sterilizing the area and Dr. Haramara makes about a 1 1/2 foot incision from shot Shinobu's right hip up to her bottom left rib. As he does shot Shinobu makes a low weak moan.

"Oh God she can feel it." says one of the nurses worryingly. "Don't worry the morphine should kick in any minute now" says the other doctor. Dr. Haramara finishes his incision and begins to peal back the skin and muscles exposing Shinobu's organs. Shinobu begins to feel a little sick to her stomach because of all the blood and gruesome sight but surprisingly she doesn't feel like throwing up; maybe because it's her own organs and blood that she is seeing.

"My God this poor girl! And they say she walked after this?" says the other doctor in disbelief as he sees all the internal injuries. "Damn. Her liver looks like it took the most damage. We have to clamp it off it before we can even think about getting her to the OR." says Haramara.

"I'm surprised there isn't a lot of blood build up in her belly, I was expecting a lot more blood than this." says the other doctor. "Yes. Me too." says Haramara.

"Dr. Haramara! There's a large amount of blood pouring onto the floor by your feet." says one of the nurses urgently. He looks down and sure enough there is a small puddle of blood by his feet. He looks at the gurney and sees that the sheets are soaked through with blood. "Lift her up a second." commands Haramara. Three of the nurses lift shot Shinobu onto her right side.

He spots a two inch hole in her back. "I see the problem. One of the bullets went out her back. That's where all the blood went to. We had better close this off first!" he shouts. "Nurse. Suitcher kit now!" he commands with urgency. The nurse quickly hands him a suitcher kit and he takes out the pre-threaded needle and begins to sew up the hole as quickly as he can.

Within two minutes he has completely sewn it shut. As the nurses set her down he is already going into her with clamps and gauze. The other doctor is also going in with gauze and a pre threaded needle. "God her liver has been torn to shreds. How the hell did it miss the artery?" says the other doctor. "This is going to take a while to clamp off. There has to be a faster way to clamp it off." says Haramara.

"Why not just cut off the damaged area." says the other doctor. Dr. Haramara looks up at the other doctor surprisingly. "WHAT?" he says. "If you cut off the damaged area, then instead of trying to clap off at so many different places and angles, you'll have a flat side to clamp off. It maybe a drastic measure but it would be faster to clamp off. Besides the liver can regenerate itself."

"Normally I wouldn't even consider doing that! But desperate times call for desperate measures! Nurse. Start the adrenaline drip. We have to slow her bleeding to her liver and get the blood to her heart, other wise she'll never make it!" orders Dr. Haramara. He grabs another scalpel and begins to cut away the damaged part of the liver while the other doctor begins working or her intestine.

Shinobu watches on while hovering above the "action" wondering why she's being shown this. She watches as Dr. Haramara cuts off a large chunk of her liver. She is shocked as he places the chunk of liver into a metal pan. She can't even believe she was able to walk with such a major injury. Then she watches as he begins to clamp off all the major bleeding areas and yell out medical terms that she doesn't understand. Suddenly the heart monitor goes flat again! "V-fib!" yells a nurse.

"I'm glad we used plastic clamps! Nurse! Paddles!" yells the other doctor. She quickly hands him the paddles. He places the paddles on shot Shinobu's chest. "Clear!" he yells. Everyone backs off again. He pushes the button and sends another shock through shot Shinobu's body. The monitor begins to beep again. "She's back!" yells the same nurse. Almost as soon as she says it the two doctors are in shot Shinobu again working at a fast and furious pace to repair as much damage as they can.

"Damn I just realized if she was shot twice, where did the second bullet go?" asks Dr. Haramara. The other doctor searches around in shot Shinobu's stomach for it but because of all the gauze, blood and clamps he can't see much. "I can't see anything. We need the portable X-ray stat!" he orders to a nurse. The nurse leaves the room. After a minute or two she comes back in wheeling the portable x-ray. She wheels it into place and gets it ready to take a picture.

(You know I think I have watched too many ER reruns…..)

"Come on! More adrenalin! She's still bleeding too fast!" commands Dr. Haramara. "But two units are already in." answers a nurse. "Well then put in a third! We have to slow the bleeding down or she won't make it damnit!" he snaps. "Yes doctor." answers the nurse. The nurse hooks up a third bag of adrenalin into shot Shinobu's arm while another nurse hooks up another blood bag to her other arm. After a minute the bleeding in her liver begins to slowdown. "Good now I can see better to clamp off the bleeding areas." says Dr. Haramara.

"Doctor. We're ready for the x-ray." says the nurse by the portable x-ray. "Just a second." says Dr. Haramara. After a couple of seconds he finishes claming off another bleeding vein and he backs away. The nurse switches on the x-ray and after a couple of seconds she turns it back off. "I'll have the x-ray printed out in just a minute and bring it right here." says the nurse. She pushes the x-ray back out of the room and the two doctors get back to work.

Within a minute or two the nurse comes back with the x-ray and quickly puts it up on the lighted board. What they see horrifies them. They do find the second bullet but it's lodged in her right kidney and they can plainly see a major blood vein swelling looking like it could burst at any second, but what really scares them is that they can plainly see one of shot Shinobu's vertebra missing! They look again and see that it's not a mistake.

"My God! One of her vertebra is nearly gone!" shouts the other doctor. "What?" snaps Dr. Haramara. He looks up to see the other doctor pointing at the x-ray to a gaping hole in her backbone where a vertebra would be.

"Good lord! So that's where all these bone fragments are coming from! I thought they were coming from her rib here that has a chunk taken out of it from where the first bullet hit!" says Dr. Haramara in surprise.

"She may have a spinal cord injury! We have to get to it to stabilize it if she doesn't!" shouts the other doctor. To the shock of Shinobu, she watches as he reaches in and actually takes out her intestines and lays them on a rubber pad in a metal pan beside the gurney! She really starts to feel sick to her stomach, but still doesn't feel like throwing up for some reason.

(Medical Note: the Intestines are long enough to be taken out of the body for an extended period of time. It's not unusual in the ER or OR for the intestines to be taken out to get to other organs behind them such as the kidneys or spine in this case. It's just a matter of folding them back up when putting them back in.)

"You had better take care of that kidney's swelling blood vessel first. The last thing we need is another major bleeding area." says Dr. Haramara. The other doctor finds shot Shinobu's right kidney and begins his work. He finds the hole in the kidney where the bullet is lodged and is surprised to see that's it's not bleeding all that much.

"I see the hole, but not the bullet. It seems that the bullet is putting pressure on the blood vessel causing it to swell. I can't get to the bullet from here so I'm just going to clamp off the vessel and let the guys in the OR retrieve the bullet." says the other doctor. He grabs a pair of clamps and cuts off circulation to the vessel.

The other doctor then looks at shot Shinobu's back and is amazed to see that just over half the vertebra gone leaving only the back side of it just barely in tacked holding the backbone together, but just barely. "Looks as if the back side of that vertebra was jammed between the one above it and the one below it." He looks again and is shocked to see the spine itself exposed but without a scratch on it! "How the hell this girl isn't paralyzed I'll never know!" he says in disbelief.

He is just about to put some vert-spreaders in between the other two vertebra when suddenly the monitor goes flat again! "V-Fib again!" yells the same nurse from before. He immediately grabs the defibulator paddles again and places them on shot Shinobu's chest. "Clear!" he shouts. Everyone backs off and he presses the button to send another shock through shot Shinobu's body. The monitor stays flat. He goes to shock shot Shinobu for a good two minutes before finally getting he heart to beat again. As soon as the heart starts to beat again he is back in putting in the vert-spreaders.

(Medical Note: a Vert-spreader is a device used to help stabilize the backbone incase of non paralyzing back injuries to prevent injury to the spine from happening.)

Some time goes by and Shinobu looks up at the clock and realizes it has been over an hour since she first came into the ER. Thankfully her heartbeat has remained stable as the two doctors and several nurses work on repairing the damage with in her shot self. She is amazed at how long it's taking to clamp off her liver even though Dr. Haramara is working at a fast pace. She knows that he wants to get her shot self up to the OR as soon as possible.

The time wares on slowly now and Shinobu has gotten use to the sight of seeing her organs "splayed" out in front of her and ER not as loud and hectic as it was a while ago but still very, very busy. So much so that she actually begins to nod off some what.

"Ok that's the last clamp! Let's get her to the OR STAT!" commands Dr. Haramara as he covers the shot Shinobu's chest to give her some decency and snapping Shinobu out of her sleepy daze. Shinobu looks up to see that's it has been almost two hours since her shot self was brought into the ER. Just then one of the OR doctors comes in and grabs a hold of the gurney with some of the nurses and begins wheeling shot Shinobu to the elevators. Shinobu lands and follows them.

But she gets there to late. The elevator doors close before she can get in. But just before they do she sees her shot self sit up and look right at her. Once again the bright white light comes and blinds her again.

The scene changes quickly and the light fades. As she opens her eyes she notices she is standing in a rather dark room.

"I want to thank you Dr. Jackson for taking your time to help with this surgery." says a voice from behind Shinobu. She turns around to see a lot of people in blue operation gowns by a rather large table with a lot of lights shining down on it. She also notices the tall man near the center that has to be at lest six inches or so taller than the other people in the room. She walks over to them. As she does she notices the tall man is white and not oriental. She heard the name "Jackson" so she figures he is an American. But what is an American doing here in a Japanese hospital she wonders.

"I know you were only supposed to speak to the med students here tomorrow, but I'm glad you decided to take a tour of the hospital today." says a shorter doctor beside Dr. Jackson.

"Me too. I know a lot of you her in Japan don't have a lot of experience dealing with gun shots, so consider this some hands on training. After all being the head surgeon of a Los Angeles hospital you see at least one gun shot victim every other day or so. Some times more." says Dr. Jackson.

When Shinobu hears "dealing with gun shots" she knows that it must be her about to go under the knife, even though she can't see who is on the table. She suddenly rises into the air again and hovers above everyone over the table.

The doctors remove the covering from shot Shinobu's chest and begin their work. As Dr. Jackson peers inside of shot Shinobu he is actually impressed. "For people with out a lot of experience in gun shot trauma, your ER people did one hell of a job clamping off everything they could." he comments.

Shinobu watches as Dr. Jackson takes out her shot self's intestines and also places them on a rubber mat in a metal pan beside the table. He first goes to the kidney and carefully cuts it open. He grabs a pair of surgical pliers and gently pulls the bullet out of the kidney and places it in a small metal bowl where one of the nurses takes it out to a couple of waiting CSI people. Almost instantly the pressure in the swelling blood vein is released. "And now for the liver." he says.

One of the other surgeons begins closing up the kidney while another begins working on her intestine in the metal pan.

The surgery is actually going at a smooth, calm, but steady pace. While this is all going on Shinobu is thinking hard about why she is able to see her own surgery. "If the surgery went this well then why am I seeing it? Am I really dead and I'm just seeing what all they did for me to try to save my life?" she asks herself. She keeps trying to figure this all out.

About 45 minutes go by and the other two surgeons are finishing up their work on the kidney and intestine while Dr. Jackson is busy suturing up one bleeding vessel after another carefully. His expertise is making this surgery look like child's play almost. Shinobu and a few of the other doctors watch with a bit of amazement as Dr. Jackson seemingly works on her liver like it's second nature to him.

Shinobu watches on while the doctors work hard, but then something on the heart monitor gets her attention. She looks in horror as the part than monitors blood pressure starts dropping fast! After dropping about 40 points it goes off alerting the doctors and nurses that something is very wrong. "Shit! She's crashing fast!" yells Dr. Jackson. Suddenly the monitor goes flat!

"She's in V-Fib!" shouts one of the nurses. "Come on! Paddles! Paddles!" Dr. Jackson yells and he motions to the nurse to give him the paddles. He places the paddles on shot Shinobu's chest. "Clear!" he shouts. He presses the button on the paddles and sends a shock through shot Shinobu's body. The monitor stays flat.

He does this over and over again. The minutes go by agonizingly slow as they tick away. Four minutes have gone by when her blood pressure hits bottom, and also goes flat on the monitor which means that her heart has completely stopped pumping all together. "Asistaly!" shouts the nurse.

"Shit not now! Come on!" shouts Dr. Jackson. He tosses the paddles aside. Shinobu and some of the other doctors and nurses watch in shock as Dr. Jackson actually reaches inside shot Shinobu up to his elbow and takes shot Shinobu's heart in his hand and begin to massage it.

(Medical Note: Massaging the heart when it is stopped acts like a manual heart beat. It will sometimes get the heart to jump start itself and then again it might not. This is commonly used as a last resort to get a heart restarted. Also V-fib is where the heart's electrical pulse short circuits causing it to flutter instead of beating properly, the defibulator shocks the heart and actually stops it giving the brain a chance to restart the heart properly. Asistaly is where the heart stops altogether.)

He does this for about a minute with no response. "Come on! Come on! Don't you die on me!" he shouts to shot Shinobu's face. Another minute goes by when the heart goes in V-fib once again. Dr. Jackson pulls his hand out (which is now completely covered in blood) and he grabs the paddles. He begins to shock shot Shinobu once again, but the monitor stays flat.

Shinobu is now crying almost knowing this is where she dies. (Or at least she thinks that she dies but we all know she hasn't) "This….This must be where I die! That's why I'm being shown this! I guess who ever is doing this, shows everyone the way they died before ….passing on." she says to herself while crying hard.

She suddenly notices that she is beginning to float away from the sight of the surgery. It's not like floating away to a higher elevation but more like watching a T.V. turn off only in slow motion. (You know the light from the T.V. when you turn it off converges to the center and it fades away.) She also notices the sound of all the yelling and the flat line sound of the heart monitor is getting fainter and fainter as she pulls away. Finally she can't hear or see the room anymore.

Everything is silent and very dark. Shinobu can't see anything even though she knows that she has her eyes open. Then she spots a small point of light in the distance. It looks as if it is getting bigger and bigger by the moment. She starts to see little specks of light zoom by her and with in a couple of seconds she is enveloped by a grayish spinning cloud like tunnel with a lot of those light specks going by.

She feels like she is standing still even though it looks like she if flying down this "tunnel" at a high speed. Suddenly a light at the end of the tunnel envelops her and she sees that she is standing in a familiar gymnasium.

"Ladies and Gentlemen please come on stage when your name is called to receive your diploma." says a man's voice over a speaker system behind Shinobu. She turns around and sees that the gym is packed with people on the bleachers and people in green and red gowns sitting in chairs on the basketball court.

Shinobu looks around for a second and realizes something. "No. This can't be. This can't be my graduation ceremony!" she says with a lot of shock.

End of Chapter 7

To be continued in Chapter 8- OH! The Possibilities!

Author Note: Wow! I made this chapter even shorter than the last one. Alright! At 1st I never even considered doing this chapter. But as time wore on it became very apparent that I needed to do this chapter to help explain the story in a later chapter. (if that makes any since to anyone) Everything will start to come together in one of the last chapters so be calm and keep reading. Also I'm sorry that this chapter was delayed. I had several Mid-term papers and projects due in some of my classes. When it comes right down to it my class work comes 1st. I hope you all understand.

Story Note: I guess all those years of watching ER reruns came in handy after all! I'm sorry if the many medical terms explanations disrupted the story but sometimes it's helpful to have someone describe what something is in the story so you won't get confused or lost some where in the middle of the story. Also the hole in Shinobu's back explains why there was so mush blood that had stained Naru's dress and pantyhose. Just to let you know. Also I would like to thank my Aunt who has been an ER nurse for more than 20 years now for helping me with all the medical terms and all that happens in an ER. And no she's isn't from Los Angeles.


	8. Oh! The Possibilities!

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains scenes of …..um actually this is a rather calm chapter.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 8- Oh! The Possibilities!**

Shinobu looks around for a second and realizes something. "No. This can't be. This can't be my graduation ceremony!" she says with a lot of shock.

She looks up at the man standing behind the podium speaking into the microphone. There she sees Mr. Taguya the high school principle.

"I just want to say really quickly before we hand out the diplomas that this class, the class of 2007, has been one of the greatest classes ever to come out of Hinata High. This class has produced the highest percentage of college bound graduates ever! And I am proud to be the one handing out these diplomas!" he finishes saying.

"Class of 2007?" says Shinobu to herself. She looks up at the gigantic banner hanging up over the stage and sure enough it says "Class of '07." "But how? This hasn't even happened yet! How can I be able to see this?" she keep wondering.

Mr. Taguya reaches over to a table beside him and picks up a diploma. "Miss. Achika Atani." he says into the mic. A girl in the far left front row stands up and walks up on to the stage. Mr. Taguya bows and hands the diploma over to her. She also bows and takes it and returns to her seat. "Mr. Akira Atani (No relation to Achika BTW)." calls out Mr. Taguya. The boy sitting next to Achika stands up and walks to the stage to receive his diploma.

Meanwhile Shinobu looks around still puzzled by this "memory" when she spots herself about halfway back in the rows. She slowly walks to herself. She sees that her older self has a big smile on her face waiting eagerly for her name to be called out.

As each name is said a small cheer from a different part of the bleachers can be heard. Some a little louder than others. Family members of the people whose names are being called out are the ones doing the cheering. Shinobu looks around trying to see if she can find her parents or friends form Hinata Sou in the crowd, but there just too many people. "If this is my High School graduation, I hope everyone is here to see me." says Shinobu softly.

After about 30 mins of calling out names and saying a few words about some of the people called up, like also receiving a scholarship or how well they played for the various sports teams in the school, Mr. Taguya is getting close to older Shinobu. Finally he reaches her name.

"Miss Shinobu Maehara." he calls out. Shinobu is surprised to hear most of the gym start to cheer. She hears one small section cheering louder than the rest and she turns to see who is cheering. She is happy to see Keitaro and the rest of the Hinata Sou gang and her parents cheering for her as older Shinobu stands up.

Shinobu turns back to look at her older self and is shocked to see her older self have a slight limp while walking up to the stage. "Why do I have a slight limp?" she wonders to herself. She is also still stunned and curious on why most of the gym is also cheering for her. She follows her older self on to the stage.

"Miss. Maehara I just want to say that you are one of the most amazing students ever to come out of this school. As many of you may or may not know, Miss Maehara here was shot two years ago and was on the brink of death for many days, but she battled back. She then turned her life around and started to study hard for Toudai. With a 3.97 GPA she has become one of the best students of this year and she has earned a 2,100,000 yen scholarship to any college of her choice! Congratulations Miss Maehara."

(Author Interruption: 2,100,000 yen to roughly $20,000 U.S. Dollars)

Mr. Taguya bows to older Shinobu and gives her, her diploma and her scholarship. Older Shinobu bows and takes them both and then raises the diploma and scholarship above her head and again most of the gym once again cheers for her.

"I think I get it now." says Shinobu with a very slight grin looking up to her family and friends in the bleachers. "I'm being shown what my life would have been like if I had survived." she says with a small tear running down her cheek.

She turns back to look at her older self. She sees that her older self is looking right at her. Suddenly she feels like she is being pulling away again and once again she enters the grayish cloudy spiraling tunnel.

After what seems to be only a few minutes a bright light at the end of the tunnel engulfs her and she is once again in a different place. She looks around to see that she is once again in the living room of Hinata Sou.

Not too many things have changed it appears from the present but there are a few things different about it. She walks over to the coffee table in front of the couch and looks at a couple of magazines laying there. She sees that the year on them is still 2007. "I guess it's not long after my graduation." says Shinobu to herself.

"I PASSED! Everyone I passed!" comes a yell from someone running through the front door of Hinata Sou. Shinobu turns around and sees her older self run into the living room with a very slight limp waving an envelop and an unfolded letter. She can't tell what the letter is because her older self keeps waving it around.

Everyone from form different parts of Hinata Sou come out and enter the living room. "What's all the yelling about?" says Keitaro as he comes down the stairs. "Sempai! Look!" says older Shinobu as she shoves the letter into Keitaro's face. He grabs it and begins to read it.

"_Dear Miss Shinobu Maehara, We are pleased to tell you that you HAVE PASSED THE TOUDAI ENTRANCE EXAMS and have been accepted into Tokyo University!_ Wow Shinobu this is great!" says Keitaro with excitement.

"Congratulations!" says everyone else as they each give a hug of happiness to older Shinobu who is now giggling with a great big smile. "So I could have gone on to pass the Toudai entrance exams huh, and on the first try too!" says Shinobu to herself.

"This calls for one of Hinata Sou's famous parties!" shouts Kitsune. "I'll get the banners!" shouts Su. "And as usual I'll provide the booze!" says Kitsune. "Not this time guys." interrupts Keitaro.

Everyone looks at Keitaro. "This is a very special event, so as a reward I will be taking Shinobu out on a date." he says. Both Shinobu's faces light up. "Really Sempai!" asks older Shinobu. "Yup." answers Keitaro. Shinobu watches and her older self goes over and gives Keitaro a big hug. But then the grayish cloudy swirling tunnel comes again and Shinobu is "transported" to another place.

Shinobu looks around and sees that she is at the same fair grounds that she was in when Keitaro took her on her first date after she had failed a test. "So Shinobu how do you think this date is going?" says a voice from behind Shinobu. Shinobu turns around and sees Keitaro and her older self near the front of the line to the gigantic fair-is-wheel. "Oh Sempai, this is great!" answers older Shinobu happily.

"Ok! Next two!" says a big fat middle-aged balding man with a stained white fair t-shirt and smoking a cigar. Keitaro and older Shinobu walk up to the enclosed cart that pulls up and lets a family of four step out. Keitaro lets older Shinobu enter first. But just before Keitaro enters he is stopped by the smoking man.

"Hey buddy, she's quit the catch. Tell you what. Pay me a few extra yen and I'll stop the ride while you guys are at the top and you two can 'have some fun.'" he says with a sinister smile and a wink. Both Keitaro and both Shinobus blush a deep red after hearing this.

"Heh Heh." says Keitaro with a forced laugh. "Uh…we don't have that kind of relationship." adds Keitaro with another forced grin with his hand behind his head. "Suit yourself." answers the man.

As older Shinobu turns away to look out the window Keitaro quickly slips the man a 500 yen (about $5). "Heh you sneaky little dog." says the man quietly. "Listen all I need to do is talk with her ok." says Keitaro with a stern look. "Humph. What ever you say Pal. You got five mins." answers the man with in a sarcastic voice.

Keitaro looks at the man with a slightly discussed look but then steps into the cart himself and sits next to older Shinobu. The man closes the door and then pulls the lever and the fair-is-wheel begins turning. But just before it does Shinobu runs up and jumps into the cart also and sits across from Keitaro and her older self.

About two minutes or so go by when both Shinobus notice that the fair-is-wheel begins to slowdown and then stop with them at the very top. Older Shinobu looks over at Keitaro who is looking right at her and she gets a slight worried look. "Sempai…you didn't?" she asks worryingly.

"Yes I did. But don't worry all I wanted was to have a private talk with you." answers Keitaro. Older Shinobu shakes her head a bit telling herself that Keitaro would never take advantage of her like that.

"Shinobu I was wondering. Do you remember that bouquet of roses you got about six months after you came home from the hospital?" asks Keitaro. Older Shinobu looks at him with a bit of shock. "Yes." she answers. "I was wondering if you remember what the card said?" asks Keitaro again.

"Not word for word." answers older Shinobu. "Did you ever find out who it was from?" he asks again. "No I never did. It said it was from a secret admirer, so I figured it was from a boy at my school who wanted to congratulate me for completing my rehab, but I'm not sure. Why do you ask?" asks older Shinobu.

"Heh. No reason I was just curious that's all." answers Keitaro. After a short moment older Shinobu speaks up. "Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?" she asks. "No. There is something I have been needing to tell you and the rest of the girls of Hinata Sou about. It's about me and Naru." says Keitaro with a bit of sadness in his voice.

"Are you two having trouble in a class or something?" asks older Shinobu. "No I'm afraid that it's something a little more serious than that. You see me and Naru have decided to go our own ways. You know to see other people." answers Keitaro.

Both Shinobus look right at Keitaro with shock. "You two broke up?" says older Shinobu with shock. "Well I wouldn't say broke up; more like went our separate ways." answers Keitaro. "How long?" asks older Shinobu. "About eight months now." answers Keitaro.

"How did this happen?" asks older Shinobu. "Well we just seem to get less and less happy about being together. We were so happy that we had made it to Toudai together at last and we felt as if we were on cloud nine. But lately it just seems that we were getting too use to seeing each other and so we started to spend less and less time with each other until we decided to call it quits." answers Keitaro. After a few seconds he speaks up again.

"I'm sorry to tell you all this before I told the others, but I needed to get this out; and since you are the most understanding of all the others girls I knew you would understand and not get angry or anything like that at me." says Keitaro as he looks down with a downed look.

Older Shinobu scoots over to Keitaro and lays her head on his shoulder and gives a slight caring grin. "Don't worry. It's ok that you told all of this to me. I'm not mad, nor can I be at you. Just don't take so long in tell us next time ok." says older Shinobu. "Thank you." says Keitaro as he looks out of the window of the cart over all of Tokyo with a slight smile.

All three of them feel the fair-is-wheel start up again and begin to move. Shinobu can only smile as she watches her older self keep her head on Keitaro's shoulder. She also looks out over at the beautiful sight of downtown Tokyo. She turns back to look at her older self only to see that she is looking right at her.

Once again she feels herself pull away and once again enters the grayish cloudy spiraling tunnel. After what seems to be only a few more minutes the light at the end of the tunnel engulfs her once again. After it fades Shinobu looks around and notices that she is in a large classroom.

She looks around and sees almost 100 people or more in the room with a teacher doing a lecture. Shinobu walks up to the front of the room to look at the marker board. She looks up and sees the year 2009 written on it. "Two years after my high school graduation huh." says Shinobu to herself.

"Ok class that's it for today. Be sure to read chapters nine and ten and be prepared for a quiz on them during next class time." says the teacher. Shinobu turns around quickly in time to hear most of the class moan at hearing this. She looks up and spots her older self packing a couple of books into a bag and begin to walk out the door.

Shinobu is a little stunned to see her older self with longer hair bunched up into a scruntchie. "Wow. I actually grew my hair out for once. Cool." says Shinobu to herself. Shinobu follows her older self out the door. As she comes around the corner she is stunned again to see her older self walking hand & hand with a young man whose face is covered in a shadow. "Who is that?" asks Shinobu to herself.

"Are you ready for our special date tonight Shinobu?" asks the young man. "Uh-huh I'm really excited about it!" answers older Shinobu with a big loving smile. "Who is that guy?" asks Shinobu to herself again. She tries to catch up to them but no matter how fast she tries to go she just doesn't seem to be catching up to them for some reason.

Shinobu looks back up at the couple and sees that her older self is looking back right at her and once again the grayish cloudy spiraling tunnel comes once again. The light at the end engulfs her and then fades quickly. As it does Shinobu looks around and sees that she is in a very fancy looking restaurant.

"Wow I can't believe you're able to afford this expensive place." says a voice from behind her. Shinobu turns around and sees her older self on the other side of a two person table wearing a rather cleavage reviling black mini-skirt and herself standing right behind the same young man from before who is wearing a typical black tux.

She tries to walk around to the other side to see the young man's face but it feels as if her feet are glued to the floor. "Heh. Don't you worry about the price. This is a special night for us and nothing is too expensive for you." answers the young man.

Shinobu watches as a waiter brings in their meals and they begin to eat them. After a little while older Shinobu and the young man finish their meals and begin to talk with each other. Suddenly the young man looks slightly away as if trying to gather some courage.

"Shinobu there is something I have been wanting to ask you for a while now. Ever since your shooting I have been amazed by your determination and resilience to live and go on with your life. And ever since I put at bouquet of roses in your room six months after you came home from the hospital I have been deeply in love with you. We have been seeing each other ever since you entered Toudai and you have made me a very happy man. So I want to ask you a question.

"Hmm. I must have found that boy who gave me those roses and decided to give him a try. I guess it's about to pay off." says Shinobu to herself.

Older Shinobu is a bit surprised to see the young man get down on one knee and pull out a ring from his back pocket. "Shinobu Maehara will you make me the happiest man alive and become my wife?" he asks.

Older Shinobu looks right into the young man's eyes. "Yes of course I will!" she says happily with a tear of happiness rolling down her check. The young man takes older Shinobu's left hand and places the ring on her ring finger. He then stands back up and gives older Shinobu passionate kiss on the lips. A group of people form another table applauded the successful proposal.

Shinobu still can't see the young man's face from where she is at. She looks back at her older self who is still kissing and sees that she is looking right at her. Once again Shinobu feels herself being pulled away and into the grayish cloudy spiraling tunnel. "Who is he?" asks Shinobu to herself.

The light at the end of the tunnel once again engulfs her and the light begins to fade once again. As it does she sees that she is in an open soccer field on a bright sunny day, with a lot of people sitting in the stands that circle the entire field. She also sees literally hundreds of people sitting in fold out metal chairs wearing graduation gowns in the middle of the field with a very large stage set up near one of the ends of the field. She looks up at the stage with a rather short elderly man behind a podium.

"Today we are here to send off the graduates of Tokyo University of the year 2011 as they embark on the journey known as life. We wish them the best of wishes as they proceed head strong into the world and contribute everything they can to the world and its people." says the old man. "Well you please come up to the stage and receive your degrees as your name is called please." adds the old man.

He starts to call out names of people and the degrees in which they have earned. Shinobu in the meantime looks around trying to find her older self. It takes nearly half an hour before she does.

Another hour passes and the old man finally calls older Shinobu. "Next. Miss Shinobu Maehara." he calls out. A big cheer erupts from one large section of the stands. Shinobu looks over and can just barely make out everyone from Hinata Sou, her parents, and a lot of her other friends cheering her on.

She watches as her older self walks up to the stage with a slight limp. "Miss Maehara is receiving a master's degree in the coronary arts. With a 3.9 grade point average she is one of the top students graduating this year!" says the old man proudly.

He bows and hands the master's degree to older Shinobu. Older Shinobu bows and takes the degree and then turns around and holds it up to her friends and family in the stands who are now cheering even louder and taking a lot of pictures.

Shinobu looks back at her older self who is now looking right at her. Once again she feels as if she is once again being pulled away into the grayish cloudy spiraling tunnel.

The light at the end of the tunnel comes up and engulfs her once again. As it fades Shinobu looks around and sees that she is in a large church with a lot of people in the pews. She also sees the church is really decked out in a lot of decorations. Suddenly the organ begins to play the "Here comes the bride" song.

She turns around and sees and beautiful woman start to slowly walk down the aisle with a slight limp escorted by her grandfather. Everyone in the church stands up as she enters the room. Shinobu walks out into the aisle to get a better view of the bride and is shocked to see it is her!

She looks again and is stunned to see her older self wearing an all white with red trimming silk wedding kimono. "Wooow. I look……so beautiful… and I've cut my hair short again." says Shinobu still in shock as her cheeks rose up. "Wow! That kimono must have cost a fortune!" she adds.

As the older Shinobu walks down the aisle Shinobu looks around to see if she can spot anyone she knows. Of course she spots her parents sitting in the front row along with other relatives and friends of the family. She then receives the shock of her life when she sees Seta, Haruka and Sara with a kid about three years of age who looks just like Seta.

"Well I'll be darned. Seta and Haruka have a kid after all…" says Shinobu to herself. She also sees Kanoko sitting right next to them. She looks around some more but notices Keitaro isn't there. She seems almost heart broken when she doesn't see him. "I guess…he's on another archeological dig or something and couldn't make it." she says in a very sad voice.

She snaps out of her sad daze when the pastor speak up. "Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to join Miss Shinobu Maehara and Mr.-" Just then a man coughs right beside of Shinobu thereby muffling the name of the young man. "- in holy matrimony." says the pastor.

"Gee thanks a lot pal!" she says sternly to the man who coughed. But realizes he would never hear her. She looks back at the couple and the pastor up front. She walks up front and sits in the front row. She watches as the pastor goes through the usual speech and traditions of the wedding.

As he does Shinobu looks over to see the bride's maids. She's happy to see Kitsune, Naru, Nyamo, and Mutsumi there dressed in bright pink bride's maids' dresses. But there is another girl there wearing glasses who is younger than them that she doesn't recognize. She figures it to be a friend of the groom's.

She looks over at the best men and two guys there with glasses that look familiar but she just can remember their names. The other men there see doesn't recognize. So she also figures that they are friends or relatives of the groom.

(Author Interruption- I'm going to spare you all the pastor's speech and get right to the nitty gritty)

About an hour and a half passes and Shinobu is a little annoyed because no matter how many times she tries to see the young man's face or here his name something always seems to get in the way. And every time she tries to walk up to the couple her feet always seem to be glued to the floor still.

"May we have the rings please?" says the pastor to the little ring barer. The young man takes the wedding ring for the bride. "With this ring I be wed." says the young man as he slips the ring onto older Shinobu's left ring finger. Older Shinobu then takes the other wedding ring. "With this ring I be wed." she says as she slips the ring onto the young man's left ring finger.

"Do you Shinobu Maehara promise to take this man as your awfully wedded husband? To love, cherish, and to hold, through sickness and in health through richer or poorer, forsaking all others, so long as you both shall live?" asks the pastor. Older Shinobu blushes slightly. "I do!" she says happily.

"And do you- (yet another cough muffles out the young man's name) take this woman to be your awfully wedded wife? To love, cherish, and to hold, through sickness and in health, through richer or poorer, forsaking all others, so long as you both shall live?" asks the pastor once again. The groom smiles. "I do." he answers.

"With that I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride!" says the pastor happily. At that moment Shinobu feels herself lift off the pew and quickly float over to older Shinobu. She then merges with her.

Shinobu opens her eyes and sees that she is looking right through her older self's eyes. But still the young man's face is covered in shadow. "What's going on now?" she says to herself surprisingly. She watches as the young man places his hands on her or rather her older self's waist.

With no control over herself she watches as her older self wraps her arms around the young man's neck. They start to lean into each other. "IM GOING TO BE KISSED!" says Shinobu very shocked.

As their lips come into contact Shinobu can actually feel the warm moist sensation of the young man's lips against her own. She blushes deeply at this feeling.

At that moment of the kiss other "memories" of the future begin to flash before her. She sees what's going to happen on their wedding night making her blush even more. She then sees her getting a job of being one of the head chefs at the most prestigious restaurant in all of Hinata town that serves the richest people in Japan and even the occasional rich foreigner.

It flashes again to her pregnant and then giving birth to a healthy baby boy. It flashes again to her pregnant and once again of her giving birth to another healthy baby boy. It flashes again to show her pregnant once again, but now giving birth this time to a healthy baby girl.

More "memories" start to flash faster. Of her sending the children off on their first days of school. The little girl actually acting like her on her first day of school.

It flashes again of her watching Naru getting married to some other guy. It flashes again to Mutsumi's wedding and then to Kitsune's wedding (if you can believe that!) and then to Motoko's wedding and then to Nyamo's, and then onto Su's and then finally to Sara's wedding. She watches as they also get pregnant and give birth to their own children. Mutsumi of course gives birth to at least 12 kids!

It flashes again to her kids going to junior high and then to high school and then graduating. She watches as her daughter takes after her and also loves to cook. Her oldest son seems have a knack for picking up girls. Her youngest son seems to be very smart and goes on to graduate with honors.

She watches as she and her husband send all three of them to Toudai. It flashes again to all of them graduating from Toudai. She goes on to watch all their weddings. And then to her grandchildren being born and raised.

She watches as her and her husband (whose face she still can't see) go on their second honeymoon and then on to retirement. She watches as they grow older together. Then she is saddened to see them attend a couple of funerals for some of her friends from Hinata Sou. First Haruka and Seta's and her parents', then on to Kitsune's, then to Mutsumi's and then to Naru's.

Then she sees her way older self standing alone at another funeral crying. She realizes that it must be for her husband. She goes on to watch herself grow even older to at least to her 90's, and watch Kanoko's funeral and then Su's, then Nyamo's and then surprisingly Sara's funeral.

Although these last few images are very sad, Shinobu feels a since of joy come over herself as she realizes that she could have had a very happy and prosperous life. She can still feel the warm lips from the young man as he and her keep kissing in the church. "I feel….I feel….so happy!" she says to herself with an overwhelming since of happiness, joy, and peace coming over her

The pastor doing the wedding seeing that the kiss is going take while decides to go on and finish. "Ladies and Gentlemen I have the greatest honor of being the first person to introduce you too Mr. and Mrs.-" Suddenly the vision of a burial sight with a tombstone over it pops into Shinobu's head. She sees an inscription on it and begins to read it. "_Here lies a great woman of this town. A great chef, wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She brought a since of well being to who ever she met and where ever she went. Always happy, always understanding, and always caring, she never backed down from anything. Through hardships and through easy times she never lost face with herself or of other people. She would always be there for anyone having trouble in their lives and would always have something important to say no matter how casual the conversation was. She would always have her kitchen open to any one who needed something to eat. Always giving to others, she never though of herself as someone important. We of Hinata Town all know better. She will be sorely missed and will always be remembered as an important pillar to the history of our town. Goodbye. And we will always remember you Mrs. Shinobu- (she can't see the rest because some dirt is covering it)._

Shinobu opens her eyes in surprise, and then suddenly everything goes black.

End of Chapter 8

To be continued in Chapter 9- The Moment

Author Note: Well this one was sure a toughie to do. I had to do several edits to get this to sound right. I also know that this chapter is a bit confusing but it will make a lot of since when the story is about to finish (which should be in the next few chapters). Now the next chapter I must warn you will sound even more confusing so be prepared to read it several times to understand it. Also it will be a bit shorter and have a different format from the other chapters. Just warning you because you might get confused if you didn't know.

Story Note: If you haven't noticed, the pace of this chapter was very quick. This was intentional as I am building to the climax of my story. The flashes of her future self during the wedding is symbolizing well her future life flashing before her eyes. This will be explained better in one of the last chapters. Also the part where she is seeing her friends weddings I purposely left out Kanoko as I think because of her "loner" attitude to everyone she will never get married. BTW The girl with the glasses as a bride's maid is Ema if you already didn't know.


	9. The Moment

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains……actually this is also a rather calm chapter. But it is a bit confusing. I have been forced to change the format for this chapter help sort things out.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 9- The Moment**

Shinobu opens her eyes in surprise, and then suddenly everything goes black.

Shinobu looks around in the total blackness that she is in. It's so dark she can't even see her own hand in front of her face. Her eyes strain to try to see any light but it's no use, there isn't even a speck of light anywhere.

"What is this? Where am I?" she says with a little bit of fear in her voice. "Have I really died?" she asks again.

"Not quite." comes a voice from the darkness that startles Shinobu. "Who…Who's there?" asks Shinobu nervously. She looks in the general direction of where the voice came from. Suddenly a bright spot light seems to turn on out of no where, shinning down on something in front of her about 4 feet away. It takes Shinobu by surprise and she covers her eyes because of the sudden appearance of light.

Her eyes finally adjust to the light and she looks forward to what the spot light is shinning down on. She is surprised to see a dark blue haired baby floating in mid-air looking right at her.

"GASP! You're….Y…You're!" says Shinobu in shock. "You? Yes. I am you as an infant." says the baby. Shinobu looks on with a lot of shock. After all it's not everyday you see a talking baby.

"OK now I'm really confused. 1st I can walk through walls, then I can hover over surgeries, and now I'm seeing a talking baby version of me! What is going on here? Am I dead or not?" says Shinobu with a lot of confusion.

(Author Interruption: Format will now change)

Infant Shinobu: "Calm yourself Shinobu. You are not dead, yet you are not alive either."

Shinobu: "What do you mean by that?"

"She means that you are in between the living world and the world of the dead." comes another voice from the darkness startling Shinobu again. Another spot light turns on just to the right of Infant Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her toddler self standing in the spot light.

Toddler Shinobu: "You are in the place where you are neither dead nor alive."

Shinobu: "And what is this 'place' called?" she asks confusingly.

"The Moment." says another voice from the darkness. Another spot light turns on just to the right of Toddler Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees it's her kindergarten self.

Kindergarten Shinobu: "This place is called 'The Moment.'"

Shinobu: "The Moment? Why is it called that?"

Another spot light turns on just to the right of Kindergarten Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her 8 year old self in a pair of pajamas.

Pajama Shinobu: "Because this is the moment in which it is decided if you should stay alive, or pass on."

Shinobu: "What do you mean 'decided?'"

Yet another spot light turns on right beside Pajama Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her 8 year old self wearing a black funeral dress.

Funeral Shinobu: "It is where, we, your past selves, will judge you to see if you should stay among the living, or pass on to your next life. Only we, your past selves in the times that had the most influence on your life, will decide."

Shinobu: "Oooo…k" she says still in disbelief. "Sooo…do you guys take a vote or something?"

"Yes. Actually we do." comes yet another voice from the dark. Another spotlight turns on just to the right of Funeral Shinobu. Shinobu turns and sees her bandaged up self.

Bandaged Shinobu: "Each one of us votes to see if you stay or pass on. We vote by either saying 'stay' or 'pass.' We usually base it on how you felt during that time to determine if you deserve to stay or pass on."

Shinobu: "Ok this is getting confusing."

"He he he. Don't worry. A lot of people say that when they come here." says another voice from the darkness. Another spotlight turns on just to the right of Bandaged Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her 10 year old self in her 5th grade school uniform.

10 year old Shinobu: "You would be surprised on how many people say that when they come here."

Shinobu: "'Many other people?' Does that mean everyone comes through this place before either living or dieing?"

"No not everyone." comes yet another voice from the darkness. Another spot light turns on to the right of 10 year old Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees a naked drunken 12 year old Shinobu who is as red as a cherry from all the alcohol. Shinobu blushes in embarrassment as she sees her drunken self again.

Drunken Shinobu: "There are 3 exceptions to the rule of 'The Moment'."

Shinobu: "And what are they?"

"Exception #1." comes another voice from the darkness. Another spotlight turns on just to the right of Drunken Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her 11 year old self in a towel.

Towel Shinobu: "If you are a baby and die early; such as dieing from S.I.D.S. (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). At this stage in life you have not developed any life changing events other than being born or even up to taking your 1st steps and/or words."

"Exception #2." comes another voice from the darkness. Another spotlight turns on just to the right of Towel Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her 12 year old self in her Junior High School uniform with a black eye, bloody nose and upper lip.

Black Eye Shinobu: "If your body is too gravely damaged to begin with. Such as being decapitated in a car accident, or being crushed by a 2 ton bolder. Things like that."

"Exception #3." comes yet another voice from the darkness. Another spotlight turns on just beside Black Eye Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees herself with 2 bullets wounds to the stomach.

Shot Shinobu: "After you have lived a long and prosperous life. Like growing to a ripe old age and dieing of 'natural' causes."

Shinobu: "Well that does make since. So um…when does this 'Judgment' begin?"

"Now, later, in a little while, or it might take forever." comes yet another confusing voice from the darkness. Another spot light turns on to the right of Shot Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees her shirtless self cut open exposing her organs; especially her blown apart liver. Obviously it's her from the ER. Shinobu looks at her like if saying, "What in the world does that mean?"

ER Shinobu: "This place is not effected by time. Remember this is the actual moment when it is decided if you shall live or pass on."

Shinobu: "Ok I think I'm starting get it now. So how many of you, or me, or WHATEVER will be judging me? Or is this it?"

"There will be more." comes yet one final voice from the darkness. Another spot light turns on to the right of ER Shinobu. Shinobu looks over and sees herself cut open once again but this time in a patient gown and a surgical head cap. Obviously it is her from the OR.

OR Shinobu: "We here now only represent the memories that you went through before coming here. There will be more joining us."

As OR Shinobu gets through saying this, spotlights turn on one after another all around Shinobu reveling more Shinobus from her past. She sees herself from the 1st time she learned how to ride a bike; She also sees the Shinobu from the 1st time she met Keitaro; she also sees herself from when Keitaro accidentally saw her naked in the hot springs that 1st time by accident; she also sees herself in the leaf bikini she wore on Pararakersu island; She also sees herself in her High School Uniform from when Kanoko 1st arrived and looked up her dress at her panties; she also sees herself from her 1st date with Keitaro. Many more Shinobu's appear until she looses count of them.

Shinobu: "Just how many of me are there?" she asks with amazement.

Infant Shinobu: "About 80 in all."

Shinobu: "Wow….That many huh?"

Suddenly something pops into Shinobu's head.

Shinobu: "Wait a minute. Were you the ones responsible for showing me all those memories?"

Shinobu can hear a few of the other Shinobu's giggling.

Infant Shinobu: "Not exactly. All the memories of you from your graduation all the way to your tombstone was us because we are only allowed to show you what your life may be like if it is decided that you will stay. We don't know why you were shown a lot of your past memories.

Shinobu: "Really? So if I'm chosen to stay alive then I'll know my future?"

Infant Shinobu: "No. I only said this is what your life MAY be like. This is not certain. However it doesn't matter."

Shinobu: "Huh? Why not?"

Infant Shinobu: "Because you will have no memory of this moment. No one should know what their future is or even might be."

Shinobu thinks for a minute about what Infant Shinobu just said and realizes what she said makes perfect since. The future is a very mysterious thing, one of which whose secrets should never be known ahead of time.

Shinobu: "I understand….." she says with a depressed understanding. "Well…we might as well get thing over with." she says with a little concern in her voice.

All the Shinobus nod and start taking steps back to make a circle around Shinobu. Strangely the spotlights seem to follow them until then have formed a large circle shoulder to shoulder to each other around Shinobu. Another spotlight turns on right over Shinobu herself. She is now directly in the center of the circle.

Infant Shinobu: "We will now commence with the judgment."

Shinobu looks ahead and gives a slight gulp and then nods her head.

Infant Shinobu: Nods back. "We are all gathered here to judge one Shinobu Meahara. We have been given the responsibility to choose her fate of either living or passing on. What say this group? I say 'stay.'"

Toddler Shinobu: "Stay."

Kindergarten Shinobu: "Stay."

Pajama Shinobu: "Pass."

Shinobu is a bit stunned to hear this. But has the feeling that she will hear the word "pass" many times before this is all done.

Funeral Shinobu: "Pass."

Bandaged Shinobu: "Pass."

10 year old Shinobu: "Stay."

Drunken Shinobu: "Stay."

Towel Shinobu: "Stay."

Black Eye Shinobu: "Pass."

Shinobu listens intently as the other Shinobus from her past give their votes. Some say "pass" while others say "stay." Shinobu is concentrating more on each individual vote rather than keeping track. She soon realizes this and begins to worry if there are more 'pass' votes than 'stay' votes or vice versa. Finally after a few minutes they reach the last 3 voters.

Shot Shinobu: "Pass."

ER Shinobu: "Pass."

OR Shinobu: "Pass."

Shinobu stands there looking at Infant Shinobu with a lot of worry in her face waiting for the results. After a delayed brief moment Infant Shinobu speaks up.

Infant Shinobu: "Well. Well. This is rare."

Shinobu: "Um….What's rare?" she asks hesitantly.

Infant Shinobu: "Well it seems we have a tie."

Shinobu: "A TIE!" she says amazed. "What does that mean? Do I have to stay here forever now!"

Infant Shinobu: "Calm yourself Shinobu. There is something that can be done in case something like this happens."

Shinobu: "What, do you guys take another vote or something?"

Infant Shinobu: "No. In cases like this the person being judged makes the final vote. In other words, YOU."

Shinobu: "Me?"

Infant Shinobu: "Yes. But take heed. If you choose to stay in the world of the living you can never have another chance in here. A person is only allowed to be judged here in 'The Moment' once and only once. If something like this ever happens again you will either die or live depending on how well the doctors treat you. And remember, you will have no memory of this judgment ever happening."

Shinobu looks down at the ground with a saddened look on her face. She surprisingly stays silent for a few minutes deep in thought. All the other Shinobus also stay silent as they give her all the "time" she needs even though time doesn't exists there. Shinobu finally lifts her head up.

Shinobu: "I think….I think I want to stay. I know that my future could be vastly different from the one you all showed me, then again it might not. It's just……It's just that I feel that I can do so much more in my life. Make more friends, get married, have children, grow old and the like. And even though it looks like I won't get Keitaro, I still want to stay." she says with a happy bitter tear running down her face.

Infant Shinobu floats over to her while the spotlight follows her.

Infant Shinobu: "Are you sure you want to do this because you can never come back here?"

Shinobu: "Yes. Yes I do." she says while nodding her head.

Infant Shinobu: "Ok then. It's your decision."

Infant Shinobu floats back to the circle.

Infant Shinobu: "Let it be known that this group has chosen life over death. As such we shall send you back to the world of the living!"

All the Shinobus raise their hands in front of them and beams of light shoot out from them and engulf Shinobu. A bubble of light starts to form quickly around Shinobu's body. Suddenly Shinobu remembers something.

Shinobu: "Wait can you tell me the name of the man I was marrying?" she shouts.

Infant Shinobu only gives a slight grin and shakes her head no. Then the bubble seems to burst out with light and everything goes a bright white. "Good luck." says a voice from the light before everything seems to disappear in to the light.

Shinobu slowly opens her eyes and sees the ceiling of a strange room. However she can also see a dark blur right in front of her. She can also feel a strange yet somehow familiar sensation on her lips. As her sight focuses a little she recognizes the shape of the dark object in front of her.

"S….Sem…pai?" she says weakly.

End of Chapter 9

To be continued in Chapter 10- Awakening

Author Note: I am so sorry. I was forced to change the format of this chapter because of all the Shinobus! I also apologize for it being so short and confusing. You are probably going to have to read it a few times before you can understand what's going on. Damn school work. Sorry this chapter was so late. I had another turn paper due in my Expository Writing class, a speech to do for my Oral Communications class, and several sketches I needed to do for a 3D computer design class. College is eating me alive. It's going to be while before I can even get to Chapter 10. So please be patient. Plus dealing with a friend's death has hit me pretty hard. I just need a little time that's all. And don't worry I'm NOT going to committee suicide. Besides I have too many good story ideas to end it like that.

Story Note: I'm sorry for the confusion this chapter may have caused. But if you think about it, it makes perfect since. After all, who knows what goes on in a coma patient's head. Also the struggle between life and death can be very complicated and confusing at times, just like this chapter.


	10. Awakening

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Ken Akamatsu and Tokyo Pop do.

WARNING: Contains a since of brief nudity and some choice words. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITHIN A MIND**

**Chapter 10- Awakening**

"S….Sem…pai?" says Shinobu weakly.

-o-

Naru is starring completely dumbfounded at what she is seeing. She is looking right at Shinobu's heart monitor. Right now it is showing a strong heart beat and blood pressure. Normally this wouldn't bother her, but she is amazed at it because less than 15 seconds ago it was showing a total flat line.

She looks back at Shinobu's bed at the thing that caused her to be in this state of shock in the first place. There she sees Keitaro KISSING Shinobu square on the lips! Shinobu's heart and breathing had actually completely and totally stopped and they both thought they were witnessing Shinobu's last moments of life and so she began to get tears her eyes to start crying. So Keitaro, unable to stand the site, just went up and kissed her.

Normally Naru would have blasted Keitaro into orbit if he had tried this at any other time, but not expecting him to do that, it took her by total surprise. As she looks on watching the kiss she is shocked again to she Shinobu's right hand move a little and then she hears a slight coo from Shinobu; almost like a little baby coo.

She looks on through her teary eyes and thinks she sees the figure of a small infant hovering above them both. She rubs her eyes to get the wateriness out of them and looks again but only sees Keitaro continuing the kiss. Suddenly, "S…..Sem...pai?" says Shinobu weakly muffled by Keitaro's lips.

Keitaro backs off a little quickly not expecting Shinobu to talk. "Shinobu?" he asks with a bit of disbelief. He doesn't know for how long he had been kissing her. It was like he had no control over himself when he did. Shinobu's eyelids flutter for a second or two before she suddenly opens them wide with shock and looks right a Keitaro. "S...Sempai! Y….You….You kissed me!" she says also with disbelief but still a little weakly.

Keitaro just looks on in shook at seeing Shinobu wide awake right in front of him. "Oh Shinobu! I'm so glad to see you awake and alive!" he says happily as he gives Shinobu a big loving hug.

"OW!" yelps Shinobu as she grabs her stomach. Keitaro quickly let's go of her suddenly realizing her condition. "Oh! Uh….SORRY!" he shouts as he waves his arms like a humming bird. Naru gets her composure back and walks over to Keitaro and womps him on the top of his head with her fist. "Idiot! She's still recovering!" she shouts.

Shinobu begins to giggle a bit at the sight but then stops as her stomach begins to hurt again. After punishing Keitaro a bit more Naru comes over to Shinobu and gives her a gentle hug. "Oh Shinobu. I'm so glad to see that you're finally awake." she says.

Keitaro, holding his head in a bit of daze, speaks up. "I'm going to go get the doctor." he says as he closes the door behind him. "Ok." answers Naru. When the door shuts Naru turns back to Shinobu and begins to cry.

"I'm sorry Shinobu!" she says. "What are you sorry about Naru?" asks Shinobu. "I'm sorry for getting you into this mess! For getting you shot; for you being in a coma. And….and!"

"Naru please don't cry. You were trying to do something nice for me. And that's all that counts. Me getting shot WAS NOT your fault! So please stop crying. I hate seeing you like this. Because…sniff…you're going to make me cry." says Shinobu about to cry herself.

Naru looks up into Shinobu's tearing eyes and smiles. Naru lends over and gives Shinobu another gentle hug. "Thank you Shinobu. I needed that. I don't know what I'd do without you." says Naru still a little choked up.

"You would probably die in a kitchen explosion when trying to fix everyone else's dinner." says Shinobu jokingly. Both the girls have a nice laugh at Shinobu's joke just before Keitaro and the Doctor enter the room.

Keitaro enters first followed by a blonde haired doctor. "My God you were right! She is awake!" says the doctor amazed. "Well I'll be a monkey's uncle." he adds. "Shinobu. This is Dr. Haramara. He's one of the doctors that worked on you when you arrived in the ER." says Keitaro.

"Hello Dr. Haramara. I guess I have you to thank for saving my life." says Shinobu happily. "Well. I'm not he only one you should be giving thanks to. There were many other people that helped do that." he answers as he and Keitaro tilt the back of Shinobu's bed up to a 55 degree angle so she can sit up a bit.

"So how are you feeling Miss Meahara?" asks Dr. Haramara. "I'm feeling a bit sore in my stomach and back, but other wise I feel fine." answers Shinobu. "Well that's not surprising since that's where we had to cut you open to get to your internal injuries." says Dr. Haramara.

"CUT ME OPEN!" shouts Shinobu with surprise. She the lifts up her gown to look at the suitchers still in place on her stomach. "Oh great! I'm going to have one hideous scare now!" she complains with a bit of shock. Suddenly she realizes that she's not wearing any panties! "YYYEEAAAAAAA!" she shouts as she shoves her gown back down. But it's no use. Keitaro got an eye full of Shinobu and is now trying to cover up and heavily bleeding nose.

Naru sees this and runs right at him at a full charge. "PERVERT! She's only 16!" she shouts as she gives Keitaro and roundhouse left hook to the face sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the room with a loud WAM!

"……ouch……" says Keitaro just before he peals off the wall. "I'm going to call her parents and the others to tell them that Shinobu has woken up. Doctor, I leave you in charge of keeping this perverted jackass in cheek." orders Naru as she leaves the room. "Y…Yes ma'am." answers Dr. Haramara still in shock after seeing such a display of power and seeing someone actually surviving such a massive blow.

Naru walks down the hallway a bit and reaches the pay phones on the wall. As she drops a few yen into the coin slot she remembers the last time she had to make a call from the hospital. But this time instead of bad news she has the best news anyone can hear. After calling Shinobu's parents she dials the number for Hinata Sou. As she does she wonders who will pick up.

(Meanwhile back at Hinata Sou)

Kitsune is sitting on the couch in the living room watching another one of her horse bets go down the drain and eating an instant noodle cup. "Damn! That's the third bet this week I've lost!" she says to herself as she slurps up some more noodles. "Yuck! I hate these things! And what's the use! It's just going to end up in the toilet in less than three hours!" she adds as she slams her cup on the coffee table in front of her. She remembers that she and everyone else has had to eat a lot of these for a while ever since Shinobu got shot.

She's been pissed off like this for a while now. She doesn't quite know what is causing it. It could be that it could have been her in the hospital if she hadn't had that hair appointment, or that the police still have no leads on the actual shooters, or it could be that all the stale noodles that she has been eating for awhile is driving her crazy, or it could be that she ran out of Sake this morning, or that it's her time of the month. Or it could be a combination of all of these things. What ever it is she has been mad as hell for a while.

She looks over into the dining room and sees Su on her eighth noodle cup and Motoko eating her usual warrior meal that she usually fixes herself. Suddenly the phone in the hallway rings. This only irritates Kitsune more. "Damnit Su! If that's your boyfriend Jimmy from America again, I swear I'm going to yank the phone line out of the wall!" she says madly.

"Oh come on Kitsune! He's only called 18 times today! That's down from his usual 30!" answers Su. "You are a princess stupid! You can afford to have your on private phone line installed into your room you know!" shouts Kitsune back. Su only laughs.

As the phone keeps ringing Kitsune stomps into the hallway and picks up the phone. "What!" she answers rudely. "Oh hi Naru!" she says instantly changing her tone of voice as she hears Naru's voice from the phone. She listens into the phone for a few seconds. Suddenly, "REALLY!" she shouts.

Motoko and Su both lean back in their chairs with chopsticks in their mouths curious at why Kitsune just yelled. "Ok we'll be there as soon as we can." says Kitsune. She hangs up the phone.

"YYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW!" she shouts letting her full Osakian accent show through. (Southern bell accent if you prefer the dubbed) Motoko and Su come running into the hallway from the dinning room as Sara comes running down the stairs from upstairs. "What is it Kitsune?" asks Sara.

"Guys it's Shinobu! She's awake!" she shouts some more. Motoko gives a loving smile as Su starts running around. "Yeah! Shinomu's awake!" she shouts while Sara joins her in running around. "Come on you guys stop running around and get ready! Let's go!" orders Kitsune. Everyone goes back to their rooms to get ready and within five minutes they are all heading out the door and running down the steps.

When they reach the tea house Kitsune suddenly stops. "Hold up a sec guys. I'm going to go tell Haruka the good news!" says Kitsune as she turns to head to the tea house door. She runs up to the door and flings it open, smacking a drunkard square in the face knocking him out cold. "Haruka!" shouts Kitsune getting everyone's attention.

Haruka looks up from the cash register after just depositing the knocked out customer's money. "Kitsune. I really wish you wouldn't knock out my customers when ever you came in here. Whether it be with a sake bottle or with the door. Anyway what do you want?" asks Haruka. "She's awake!" says Kitsune happily.

Much to the surprise of everyone in the tea house and Kitsune, Haruka gives a very rare toothy grin (still with cigarette in mouth). "That's great! Just give me a minute to grab my bus pass and I'll join you all." answers Haruka. "OK!" answers Kitsune as she closes the door.

Haruka reaches under the counter and grabs her bus pass and then turns to the curtain that covers the door way to the kitchen. "Hey! Mutsumi!" calls out Haruka. After a moment Mutsumi pops her head out from behind the curtain. "Ara. Am I in trouble again Miss Urishima?" asks Mutsumi blankly. Haruka gets a bit irritated at Mutsumi for calling her Miss again.

"No dufus. Shinobu has just woken up and I'm going with the rest of the girls to the hospital to visit her. You stay here and run things while I'm gone ok?" orders Haruka. "Oh that's great news! Don't worry I'll be a good hostess." answers Mutsumi. As Haruka leaves to join the rest of the girls to head to the bus stop, the rest of the customers prepare to leave themselves. They all remember what happened the last time Mutsumi was left in charge of the tea house.

Within an hour the bus reaches the hospital. Everyone, including Haruka, runs into the hospital and runs all the way up to Shinobu's room. But just as they get to the door, everyone hesitates. "Well don't just stand there like a brick, Kitsune. Open the door!" orders Haruka. Kitsune nods and slowly opens the door.

When they finally enter the room they see Shinobu sitting up in bed watching T.V. and eating a Jell-O cup. She looks over to see them and quickly swallows the spoon full of Jell-O she had just put in her mouth. "Hi guys!" she says happily.

Everyone runs to her and they all give her a gentle group hug and a few of them begin to cry tears of happiness, including Shinobu. "Oh I'm so happy to see that you have finally woken up out of you're coma. It's been a while since we have seen those blue eyes of yours Shinobu." says Kitsune.

"'After all this time?' How long was I out for?" asks Shinobu. "You've been in a coma for the past month." answers Naru. "A WHOLE MONTH?" asks Shinobu with shock. "Yeah. In fact, school starts back up next week." adds Naru.

"Oh man!" complains Shinobu. "Well I guess I spent my summer doing it the way any other typical teenager would spend it." she adds. "How?" asks Su. "Sleeping if off." answers Shinobu. Everyone in the room laughs.

Kitsune, after having a good laugh, suddenly gets a serious look on her face. "You know Shinobu; for a while there we didn't know if you were going to make it or not." she says. "Really?" asks Shinobu.

"Yeah. Especially at first. No matter how hard we tried none of us, including your parents, could get any response out of you. That was until your parents told us that they saw you shed a tear after talking about how an old friend of yours that died. From that point on each of us would take turns spending a week or a few days with you and tell you stories that we remember about you. We were hoping that by helping you remember all the memories you had made with us, would help you stay with us." explains Kitsune.

"Really? You told stories about me?" asks Shinobu. "Yes. first was Haruka, then me, then Su came next, then Motoko, and then Naru; although she could only muster the courage to come here once before today; would take turns telling you stories." answers Kitsune again. "Oh you guys. That was so sweet of you." says Shinobu wiping a few tears from her eyes.

"Oh that reminds me Shinobu. When did you wake up?" asks Motoko. Shinobu suddenly gets a confused look on her face. "I…I don't know. I guess after Sempai kissed me, no one bothered to look at a clock." she answers.

Shinobu realizes what she just said and slaps her hands over her mouth. "KISSED YOU!" all the girls say in unison. They all turn and look right at Keitaro with angered stairs. Motoko pulls out her sword. "Urishima! I will slice off your manhood for violating Shinobu's innocence!" she shouts.

Kietaro by now is backing up slowly scared out of his mind. "That's right Keitaro…." says Naru from behind him. "YYYEEEAAA!" Keitaro yelps as he jumps three feet in the air out of surprise. "…Why did you kiss Shinobu for?" she says with an evil glare that would make any man shake in their boots.

Keitaro starts to sweet bullets as he lowers his head. "I…I did it as a farewell gift." he answers. All the girls come out of their mean looks, curious at what Keitaro will say next. "As you saw Naru, Shinobu's heart and breathing had stopped. We both thought we were seeing her die right in front of us. So the only thing I could think of to do was give her a kiss from the man she loved as a parting gift to her." answers Keitaro. "It was like I had no control over my body when I did. Like someone else was in control. I'm sorry if I made you all upset." he adds.

Naru and the rest give a smile of understanding. Naru walks up to him and places her hand on his shoulder. "It's ok Keitaro; I understand why you kissed her. I'm not upset at you anymore. You did if for her; not for yourself." says Naru lovingly. Then she gets a mean look on her face. "But I swear if you ever kiss her again,** I'll** be the one to take away your manhood! GOT IT!" she yells. Keitaro nods his head quickly with a frightened look.

Dr. Haramara, who has stayed silent up until now speaks up. "So are you saying that you woke up because Mr. Urishima here kissed you?" he asks Shinobu. "Yes." she answers. Dr. Haramara gives a little giggle. "People. What we have here is a very rare event we call the 'Sleeping Beauty' effect. In other words Sleeping Beauty here was woken up with a kiss from her Prince Charming." he explains. Shinobu blushes deeply at his comment.

"I thought something like that could ONLY happen in fairy tales." says Naru. "Well maybe I should explain. I'm sure you've all heard the phrase 'when he/she kissed me my heart skipped a beat.'" asks Dr. Haramara. "Who hasn't?" says Motoko. Everyone looks right at Motoko with surprise.

Motoko sees this and blushes a little. "WELL WHO HASN'T! EVEN US WARRIORS HAVE!" she yells in defense still blushing. A few people giggle at her blushing face.

"Anyway. 'Skipping a beat' can actually happen. In fact it's not all that uncommon. When someone gets surprised or gets extremely happy their heart can actually skip a beat. A first kiss can cause this. In this case when Mr. Urishima kissed Miss Meahara it must have caused her heart to self jump start itself back into beating. Instead of skipping a beat, it jump started it's self instead. So in a since, Mr. Urishima saved Miss Meahara's life." explains Dr. Haramara.

Everyone turns and looks at Keitaro who is scratching the back of his head and is giving an embarrassed laugh. "Thank you Sempai." says Shinobu sweetly with a smile. Keitaro looks up and blushes a bit. Suddenly there is a knock at the door. "Come in!" calls out Naru.

The door opens and in walk Shinobu's parents. "Sh..Shinobu?" her mother says with disbelief when she sees Shinobu awake. "Mom…..Dad…" says Shinobu with a quivering voice.

"Oh Shinobu! Thank God you're alright! Thank God you're alright!" shouts her mom as she comes over and gives Shinobu a big loving hug while crying tears of joy. "I thought you would never wake up ever again! When Dr. Haramara and your surgeon told us what they did to you in the ER and OR we thought you were never going to wake up again!" cries her mother some more.

"Oh mom!" says Shinobu also beginning to cry. "Thank God my little girl is alright." says Shinobu's dad sitting in a chair next to the bed with tears coming down his face also. In fact there isn't a dry eye in the room. Even Haruka is getting a bit emotional by letting a tear run down her face.

Dr. Haramara realizing he has his rounds to do, and knowing everyone wants to catch up, cheeks Shinobu's vitals one last time, writes then down in her clip board at the foot of her bed, and turns to walk out of the room.

"I'll leave you guys alone to catch up." says Dr. Haramara. As he opens the door Mr. Meahara speaks up. "Thank you for all that you have done doctor." says Mr. Meahara.

Dr. Haramara looks back at him and gives a "see ya" wave to acknowledge the comment as he walks out the door. As he closes the door behind him he gives a big grin knowing that he helped save another life and then starts to walk down the hall to visit his next patient.

The End.

To be concluded in Chapter 11: Epilogue

Author Note: I'm so sorry! Please forgive me for taking so long on Chapter 10. But end of semester exams, computer crashes and waiting for a new computer, and disk corruption set me back a few weeks. I thank all who have taken their time to read my story up to this point and I hope you all will read and enjoy the final chapter when I upload it.

Story Hint: I guess you've figured it all out by now. The reason why Shinobu was able to remember all of those memories was because her friends and parents and doctors told them to her while she was in a coma. Also the "Sleeping Beauty" effect (although not the actual medical term) is real! There have actually been a few, although rare, cases where a kiss has brought someone out of a coma.

Added Author Note: Yes I am back! My heavy class schedule has finally come to and end for the semester and am returning to my fanfics. Please look for the next chapter of "ELOPE A DOPE" to be in the next couple of weeks! And all you Negima readers out there, the next chapter of "Deadly Lessons will follow shortly afterward! See you soon!


	11. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina. Tokyo Pop and Ken Akamatsu do.

WARNING: Contains a couple of adult situations. Reader discretion is advised.

**MINDS WITH IN A MIND**

**Epilogue**

February 14th, 2006; Valentine's Day. It is a crisp very cool Valentine's Day with a slight breeze blowing; the kind that makes Jack Frost come out and tingle your nose every so often. But although it is quite cold, the sun is out in force. A now 17 year old Shinobu is walking along the sidewalk walking home to Hinata Sou after receiving a clean bill of health after finishing her last day of a 6 month rehab program at Hinata Regional Hospital.

She has become somewhat of a celebrity in the town of Hinata. Since guns are extremely hard to get in Japan; being shot by one and surviving tends to get you noticed. Even some of the town council elders are a bit envious. Many of them are WW2 vets and had seen the true horrors of war. They are amazed by Shinobu because they saw many of their comrades die with much less sever wounds.

She is about a block away from Hinata Sou when she stops and looks up, with one of her slight innocent grins. As she looks up she sees Hinata Sou though the mist sitting on top of the hill in the center of town. She gives a bigger grin as she remembers the long 6 months she's had since being released from the hospital.

She blushes and gives a slight giggle as she remembers the reason why she woke up from her coma. She also remembers that she made everyone promise not to tell her parents how she woke up. She knew that if her dad didn't kill Keitaro, then her mom sure would have!

She remembers back to the day when she was finally released from the hospital; which was about a week after she woke up. It was also the very 1st day of school. She remembers she received the shock of her life as she was being wheeled out of the hospital by her dad. There out side of the hospital was everyone from Hinata Sou, many of her relatives, and almost the entire school body from Hinata High.

When the principle of Hinata High learned that Shinobu was to be released from the hospital on the 1st day of school he allowed the whole school to go greet her. Shinobu remembers she cried so many tears of happiness that day. She had no idea that she would in a million years have become popular in school. And here it is, 6 months later, and she still gets asked out by some of the boys at her school. Of course still being very shy she has turned down all of them.

During the 1st month after being released she had been ordered to stay in a wheel chair due to her back injury. She was allowed to stand up for only short periods at a time. 10 seconds at the most; otherwise she could aggravate her back injury and even risk paralyzing herself. This was ok for standing up to get into bed or to get something just out of her reach in the wheel chair, but it was a nightmare when she had to use the bathroom or take a bath. She had to get one of her friends to help her undress for her to be able to sit on the toilet or get into the hotsprings.

She blushes as she remembers the one day when she had to use the bathroom so badly, but everyone but Keitaro had left. She held it for an hour before giving up hope that one of the female attendants would come back. So she shyly, but desperately asked Keitaro for help. He nearly fainted on the spot, but thankfully he didn't. Being the clumsy gentleman he was he wore a blindfold when he had to take off Shinobu's panties and set her on the toilet. She was able to put her panties back on and set back down in her wheel chair by her self, but needed help washing her hands as she couldn't reach the soap because the sink was in her way.

Unfortunately for Keitaro as he was wheeling Shinobu out of the bath room, Naru happened to come back and had just reached the top of the stairs when she saw Keitaro and Shinobu coming out of the bathroom. Keitaro was promptly sent through Hinata Sou's roof.

She goes on to remember the 3 months after that as her rehab progressed, when she had to use a cane to help her walk. She still needed help in climbing stairs but other than that she was recovering nicely.

She opted to use her great-grandfather's old cane. It was a graceful black and green cane carved from and old tree than was more than 200 years old. It had a lovely hand painted picture of a Sakura tree in full bloom on it. It came up and a crane's head was carved in to it to become the curved handle.

She remembers the 4th and 5th months of her rehab when she was allowed to walk short distances without the cane. But she was ordered to use it when she had to walk greater distances or go up or down stairs. It wasn't until late in the 5th month of her rehab that she was allowed to walk completely independent of the cane, but was asked to watch her step of course. Now that the 6th month of her rehab was finally over she could walk for as long as she liked.

She begins walking again back to Hinata Sou with a big smile on her face. How she was glad she could walk without any assistance again. However the emergency back surgery she had to go though, replacing 1 whole vertebra with a plastic one and fusing the other 2 above it, had left her posture slightly crocked to the right. So when ever she walks now, she has a slightly noticeable limp when ever she takes a step with her left leg. But it doesn't bother her.

The limp isn't the only thing that has left her forever scared. She feels a little pain in her stomach and back from time to time from where she was shot. She now has to take a small amount to pain medication every morning at breakfast. Thankfully it's only 1 pill a day.

Surprisingly the "hideous" scare Shinobu had been fearing was actually not all that bad. It was a noticeable long, lighter than her skin color, streak across her stomach from where she was cut open. But thanks to modern medical cosmetic technology they were able to reduce the noticableity of it.

As she reaches the long steps leading up to Hinata Sou, she looks over and sees the wheelchair lift that Su had installed when she was still in her wheelchair. She looks to the other side of the steps and sees the railing that Keitaro had installed when she had to use the cane. Because of these implements Hinata Sou was now wheel chair accessible. Haruka didn't mind because it now also opened the tea house to the wheel chair and cane confined. In the 6 months after both were installed they had more than paid themselves off.

As she grabs onto the railing and begins to walk up she remembers the other important events involving her shooting. 3 months after she was released, the police captured the Yakuza member that had driven the white Honda and had been the one who had shot Shinobu. He quickly gave up his partner.

Shinobu had been called upon as a witness during the trial and had testified on what she saw and what had happened to her. Her emotion filled testimony did wonders for the prosecution as within a week the 2 men were sentenced to life in prison without parole. However as great a victory that was the police still haven't found the local Yakuza boss who had given the order to kill the Johnsons.

During the trial Shinobu learned that her getting shot was just one big mistake. The Yakuza had learned that the Johnson's daughter was there. So wanting to wipe out the whole family for not paying their dues, the 2 gunmen where ordered to kill all 3 of the Johnson family. Because Shinobu looked so much like the Johnson's daughter, and not knowing that she had left back for America already, the driver had shot Shinobu by mistake thinking she was the daughter.

As Shinobu reaches the top of the steps she rests a little. Although she can now walk all on her own, her limp makes her a bit more tired after climbing the long flight of steps.

As she rests she remembers back when she was in the hospital. It had been 4 days since she woke up. Keitaro, her parents, and Naru were visiting her after they had gotten off work. A knock on the door got everyone's attention. Her dad opened the door and in walked a girl who looked a lot like Shinobu. The girl was none other than Susie Johnson, the daughter of the 2 slain store owners.

She had come to apologize to Shinobu and Naru for them getting caught up in her parents' "financial trouble." (To say the least) She told them about how she came back to Japan a few days after the shooting and had taken her parents' bodies back to America to be buried. She came back this time to finish up the closing of the store and take all the rest of her parents' belongings back to America. But before she left she wanted to say sorry to Shinobu and Naru, but mostly to Shinobu.

As a token of her apology she gave Shinobu a pink floral patterned dress that she had been looking at moments before she was shot. Shinobu and Susie now write back and forth to each other regularly and have become good friends. Susie has told Shinobu that she would like to come back to Japan someday to open up her own clothing store. But for now she has to finish High School.

As Shinobu finishes resting up she also finishes going down memory lane. She walks up to the door of Hinata Sou and opens it. "**SURPRIZE!**" comes a shout from the living room. Shinobu is stunned to see everyone, including Haruka, in party hats and seeing the entire living room decked out in party decorations.

"What's all this?" asks Shinobu still stunned. "We decided to throw a surprise party for you Shinobu for completing your rehab!" answers Kitsune already halfway to being drunk holding up a sake bottle. Su comes over and places a party hat on Shinobu's head.

"We're all so proud of you Shinomu!" says Su as she gives one of her famous big smiles. "If you were a swordsman you would be recognized and honored for your strength and determination in coming back from such a certain mortal wounding." says Motoko with a big smile herself.

"You have been a big inspiration to us all," says Naru. Keitaro looks at Shinobu and gives her a big smile, with a thumbs up. "Well done Shinobu. We all knew you could do it." he says. Shinobu blushes just a bit at his comment. "Well is this a party or what!" shouts Kitsune as she brings out a giant chocolate cake that she and the other girls made for Keitaro and Shinobu. Naru brings out the radio and starts to play some dance music. Everyone including Shinobu starts to dance and have a good old time.

After a few hours of partying Shinobu says she is going to go take a nap because she is feeling tired, but says for everyone to continue the party if they want to. Everyone understands and they continue the party in her honor.

Shinobu walks up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. She gives a short yawn just before she opens her door. When she opens it she receives a big shock. There on her bed is a bouquet of about 36 red roses! She stands there a bit shocked for a moment before she walks up to her bed. After another brief moment she reaches down and picks the bouquet up.

When she does a small card falls out of it. Cradling the bouquet in her left arm she reaches down and picks up the card with her right hand. She opens it up and reads it to herself:

_Shinobu: Happy Valentine's Day and congratulations on finishing your rehab. You have been a big inspiration to everyone these past 6 months. Watching you fight your way back from the brink of death and trying to have a normal life again was a great feat that has impressed me to no end. I can only wish to have your courage and strength. You have inspired everyone to do better, and be better at what we do, but especially me. I know you will grow up to become a beautiful wise woman someday and I can sense that you will do great things in your life, and I hope you will always have that beautiful innocent looking smile of yours where ever you go. May you live a happy and long life Shinobu and know that I will always love you._

_Signed:_

_A Secret Admirer._

Shinobu blushes heavily after reading the card as the sun's rays shine through her windows seemingly making her face radiate in a beautiful glow. She then grins and gives a small giggle. She gives an even bigger smile as she brings the roses up to her face and takes a big whiff of the sweet smelling fragrance of the roses. As she does Keitaro peeks in from just around her door.

He then smiles and turns to walk away. He turns his head back one last time to look at Shinobu's open door. "Congratulations on completing your rehab Shinobu. I hope you liked the roses I got you." he says to himself. With a smile he then turns back around and walks back down the hallway to rejoin everyone else at the party.

**THE END!**

Author Note: Yeah! It's finally done! I hope you all enjoyed my story! I would like to thank the 9 people who put me on their favorites list and the 15 people who put me on their author alert list! This will certainly NOT be my last Love Hina fanfic as I have 3 more stories already slated to be written. I have decided to do 2 stories at once after this one. One you should already know about called "Gundam Hina" where, you may have already guessed it, the world of Gundam collides with the world of Love Hina. It's a bit bloody so read at your own risk. The 2nd one I'm going to be doing is called "The Hinata Maiden." let's just say it's like part Love Hina, part Sailor Moon, and part Xenia. I hope you will all enjoy them. And thank you all for reading my fanfics!

Story hint: Japan has no death penalty, so that's why the 2 shooters only got life in prison. BTW I didn't realize it till I started this chapter that 6 months after Shinobu was released from the hospital would make it February of the next year. So I said what the hell I'll make it Valentine's Day while I'm at it. I think really helped the rose scene. :-) And now you know the identity of the shadow faced groom. (Keitaro!)

Update: I am now finally beginning Chapter 10 of Elope A Dope. It should be up in the next few weeks.


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